Pursuit of Light
by DarkCraze
Summary: A Takari story. Kari, separated from Tai and the others by Puppetmon, finds herself lost as she searches for a frightened and lost T.K., while at the same time realizing faint emotions for him and battling her own innermost fears of being alone.
1. Targeted Playmate

Chapter One

_Author's Note: I do not own Digimon.If I did I would be the richest frickin' genius in the WORLD!But unfortunately, because I don't please do not try to sue me (that goes to you, Saban, Fox Kids and Toei), because all that you'll get from me is $2.79, a paper clip and a bottle cap I found at the bottom of my pocket.Also, for your convenience, this fic is set to immediately follow "The Ultimate Clash" from Season 1, and right before "Etemon's Comeback Tour".I know, this story never took place in the Digi-timeline, but please try to believe that it does, or just imagine if it does, 'cause it would provide an interesting look into the possible start of Takari.Oh, and please feel free to place the digivolving special effects, theme songs and any other background music in an ordinary episode where you feel they should go._

_ _

Chapter One: Targeted Playmate

The warm, gloriously bright day began to draw to a close in the Digital World as night neared and the tired Digidestined searched for a site to rest.There were only five at the moment, seeing how Matt, Joe and Mimi had departed from the group only hours before and went on their own ways within Puppetmon's dark and massive forest.No signs that they would actually run into one another soon were concrete, so the status of the three's well-being was open to speculation.That fact only led to more worried thoughts, and with the sky beginning to grow dark and their stomachs aching from hunger, the kids felt their normally bright hopes grow sullen.

T.K., who was filled with quiet dismay for the moment, had begun to stray from the group and follow from a distance.His thumbs tucked through the straps of his backpack, he could only reflect on his older brother's actions from earlier that day.He still could not understand what had prompted Matt to "find his own path."The possibilities of what thoughts had been running through the older boy's mind were endless.Had he made his decision under the context of safety for the others?Did he feel embarrassed for his brawl earlier with Tai and could not stand seeing their expressions of judgment?

Or worse, did he do it because he had grown tired of watching over T.K?

That last thought struck T.K. as it came to him.He had figured that was the reason Matt had disappeared just before the incident with the Garbagemon.Memories of the past flashed briefly in his head.He could remember how DemiDevimon had come to him when Matt was searching for the other children, leaving him alone in the deserted amusement park.The winged digimon had said Matt would never come back for him, that he had become tired of being with a "crybaby."Although his claims had been proven false later on, T.K. still suspected that Matt had partly enjoyed being free of his little brother.Now with this sudden development, it could easily be suggested that he wanted to taste that freedom once again.

T.K. tried to look up at his hat, where Patamon was currently resting.He felt the need to talk to his companion about his thoughts and hopefully get a second opinion in the matter.Yet he could sense that the digimon had fallen asleep during their walk.His small feet and legs had been tucked into his round body and his bat ears hung low.T.K. could even hear a mild snoring sound escape the digimon's throat.This didn't bring much comfort to T.K.'s hopes.He stared down at the dirt path disappointedly and sighed to himself.

Kari, who had picked up the faint noise, glanced back at T.K. and could see the gloomy air about his expression.Not knowing if it was serious or not, and not having much experience in cheering others up or the motivation, for she herself felt weary and troubled from the long day's events, she turned forward again and concentrated on the conversation between the older children.

"We can't keep walking.We've got to find somewhere to sleep for the night and soon," Tai suggested, glancing around at the thick trees that lined their narrow path.

"Not to mention that our digimon need to eat something," Sora acknowledged.

"Don't worry about us," Biyomon told her as she kept in pace with the girl at her side."We can go on for another day without food.It's you we need to find food for."

"Now look, that wouldn't be a smart thing to do," Izzy informed."If we're to beat the Dark Masters we need to keep all of our strength up.It wouldn't look good if they attacked us while we're all at our weakest states."

"No kidding," Tai concurred."Puppetmon almost creamed us the last time we ran into him.If we see him again we have to be ready no matter what."

Koromon looked up at Tai from where he carried him in front of his body."I'll take on that block of wood any day," he said, in hope that his boast would brighten their moods.

Sora smiled."Not while you're like that, Koromon."

"Come on, we have to think logically," Gatomon told them."If we're going to beat Puppetmon we need a plan of attack.We can't just hope that we'll defeat him on the first try.We need to think."

"Can't do that on an empty stomach, though," Tentomon pointed out.

As the older children continued to debate their course of activity, thoughts of T.K. continued to fill Kari's mind.She had not actually spoken directly to him much since the confrontation against Myotismon's deadly forces and their own arrival back in the DigiWorld, and when she had it had not been for friendly leisure discussion.She was spending most of her time adjusting to this new role of hers, as the newest Digidestined, to pretend as if everything was okay and behave like she did around her friends at home.Yet this knowledge she held of sensing something plaguing young T.K.'s thoughts only stirred her more so than she already was.

Kari stared up at the mix of pink and yellow covering the sky.She studied it as she walked, lost in its grand beauty and scope, feeling a slight chill run through her body as the cold night began to make its presence known.For a moment she was lost in a trance of some sort, like if she was awaiting an answer of what to do from some celestial origin.

Gatomon looked up at her and noticed the distant look in the girl's eyes."Kari, what's on your mind?" she asked, interested in what was running through her companion's head.

Kari, hearing the digimon's words, brought herself out of her spell and looked down toward the feline."Huh?Oh, it's nothing," she replied, accompanying her words with a short smile.

When Gatomon looked forward again, deciding to abandon her curiosity, Kari turned her eyes back briefly at the young boy who was still trailing far behind them, staring downward at the floor.She sighed to herself, having found no available answer as to what it was that was bringing this out of him.She could only hope that she would see him drift out of his condition and say something to the rest of the group.

Far off in another area of the forest, watching from a high elevation and hidden within the shrubbery of the tree he stood on, the wicked Puppetmon kept his attention on the now-smaller group of children which he had come across several hours before.The mischievous Dark Master could care less about why the Digidestined had declined in its membership all of a sudden.He knew that as long as he could make them suffer he would be content.

He chuckled to himself."So, the Digidestined think they're going to get a good night's sleep, huh?" he said to himself in his signature childish rasp."Well, they've got another thing coming if they think they'll be safe around me!"

He spotted the youngest boy at the tail of the group, feeling a short wave of contempt sweep by himself.He could still remember how T.K. had tricked him back when they were inside his mansion.The cruel joke was lingering in his mind as he watched him from afar.

"That T.K. will learn what it means to mess with me," the insane wooden boy muttered to himself, running his fingers against the cold handle of his mallet at his side."If he thinks that making me look like the fool is funny, he hasn't seen me play with my life-size tanks at home.He's going to…"

He drifted off his sentence as he drew his attention off of T.K. and to the young girl not too far ahead of him.The one who was looking at T.K. with such a concerned expression on her face.The one who had been once referred to as the eighth Digidestined child, the one named Kari.

Puppetmon couldn't help but let a new idea flicker inside his mind.He had grown tired of playing with T.K., and was ready to bring him great pain now.But the girl could serve as a suitable substitute, and with seeing how worried she appeared for the boy it would be easy to kill two birds with one stone—in a literal sense…

"Ha, all work and no play makes me a stiff two-by-four.Well, I guess I have someone new to play with," the twisted marionette said to himself."Time to get ready, Kari, because I don't like to play fair.And when I do, it's for keeps…."

*****

"Hmmm, this looks like a good spot for us to spend the night," Tai said to himself as he observed the small clearing that they had come upon.He turned back to the others, who were barely approaching his position."We better get a fire going so we can get warm.Plus we need to find some food."

"Oh, good.I'll be in charge of that department," Tentomon stated as he gave his insectoid wings a jolt of life and buzzed off in the direction of the trees along the clearing."Food is my specialty."

Izzy groaned."Do you always think with your stomach?" he asked humorously, watching as Biyomon quickly ran to accompany the digimon.

"Hey, I'm a bug.We always have to eat," was Tentomon's simple reply.

Izzy began to sit down in the center of the clearing and place his laptop before him."I'm sure I can find a science teacher back at home who would prove otherwise." 

Koromon dropped out of Tai's hands and dropped in front of his feet."Come on, Tai.Let's go look for some firewood for the campfire."

"Sure thing," Tai agreed.He began to follow the bouncing pink head toward another part of the clearing when he glanced back at Sora."Hey, Sora, wanna help?"

Sora nodded."Oh, okay," she said.She stepped away from where she stood and started to follow the big-haired boy.She looked back toward the two younger kids."You two stay here for now, okay?" she told them with the soft influence of a mother that she possessed.

Kari nodded as Sora and Tai jogged off in search for flammable bark among the trees.The sun had disappeared many minutes before and all light except that of the creamy white moon and the diamond stars against the sky was nonexistent.The forest was shrouded in darkness and all that was around them was wrapped within a blanket of thick shadows.

The brown-haired girl moved her eyes toward T.K. once again, who was standing not that far away behind her.His pig-like friend had already woken up and was now gliding down from his comfortable seat to better observe the area.T.K., however, hadn't changed during the rest of the walk and still held a look of deep inner thought and emotion dipped with despair, his usually bright blue eyes staring down at the ground.

Kari frowned and could only wonder of what to do.

Within a few minutes Tai, Sora and Izzy had successfully sparked a thirsty fire (with a little assistance from Tentomon and his spark-inducing attack) with the firewood they had assembled before themselves.They sat around the growing blaze and adjusted its perimeters, while bringing warmth to their shivering bodies, as they waited for the insect and feathered digimon to return with a harvest of berries that they had spotted inside the trees.

Tai and Sora moved smaller sticks of wood into the red flames while Izzy sat close by, engrossed in an activity with his computer.Kari was busy finishing the last of her own berries that they had collected when searching the plant life.Then all of a sudden she walked away from the center and carried her own food in her pink scarf toward T.K.

The small boy sat away from them, resting against a tree with his back at the edge of the clearing.Patamon paid no attention to his friend and ate some of the berries they had given the two.T.K. did not seem to mind.He was lost in his thoughts yet again, poking at the ground with a short stick in a contemplative manner.He did not look like he was searching for answers to complex philosophical questions, because he just stabbed at the dirt repeatedly in a routine order.

Kari stopped in front of him and knelt to his eye level."Want some of my food?" she offered, generously holding the scarf out.

T.K. raised his solemn eyes to her."Nah, it's okay," he replied without much emotion or light."You eat them.You need to keep yourself going."

Kari had become tired of his slow, sad impression and knew she could not let himself continue like this."Are you okay?" she asked, sitting down before him."What's wrong?You don't seem like everything's alright."

T.K. could tell there was no use to sulk in his emotions like this when she already acknowledged it was obvious to her.Trying to avoid her eyes, he only found Patamon's instead, who had looked up from his food and was staring at him as well.The small creature seemed to express similar concern, although it was a mystery to how he knew when he had not put much attention in the conversation.The digimon continued to look up at him, waiting to see if something was really wrong.T.K. moved his own eyes away and tried to concentrate on something other than them, but their influence had already made a mark on him.He could not shut himself from the two now.

T.K. raised his innocent cerulean eyes up to Kari."It's Matt," he began to explain."I never thought that he would do this again, that he would leave me alone and go out on his own.The last time he did I didn't see him for a long time.I told him I could take care of myself only because I didn't want him to be angry with himself.But… I don't know, this is hard to explain."

Kari moved closer, hoping he would feel more comfortable if he knew she was listening to him."Come on, you can try."

T.K. pressed his lips together, trying to construct his thoughts into one comprehensive collection."Well, have you ever thought you would let Tai down if you didn't do what he had asked for, or if he had to watch you and worry about you all the time?"

Kari nodded."Yeah, I've felt like that sometimes."

"That's how it is for me," T.K. continued, pulling his legs closer to his chest and pressing the bottom of his chin against his knees."I want to make Matt proud.I want him to believe he doesn't have to worry about me.But I don't know… if I can handle myself being alone without him."

Kari reached out and placed a warm hand on his knee."You have the rest of us to hang around with, so don't worry about being alone and scared.And besides, maybe what Matt is doing is for the best.Big brothers are hard to understand that way.I know that when Tai doesn't want me to be around him it's because he doesn't want me to get hurt.Matt might have his own reasons, but for whatever he's doing this for it has to be because of you.Maybe he wants to become a better big brother for you, T.K."

T.K. could tell that her efforts were mainly to brighten his mood.Although he was still very young, he had gained some insight to how others spoke to small kids.But there was something different to how she was acting.Despite that she was as young as him and believed in knowing how elder siblings behaved, her soft tone of voice and kind expression seemed to reveal another part to her.He was not sure what he felt from it exactly, but he sensed an inner glow of warmth that he never experienced from another person before.It could have just been the body heat she was passing along through her touch.All he could understand about it was that it was very comforting.

T.K. felt more at ease now as the young girl once again offered the berries she carried in her scarf.She gestured that he take some for himself."Come on, you gotta eat."

With some brief hesitation and consideration, the young boy reached out and picked one of the berries with his fingers.He politely plucked it into his mouth and began to chew it slowly.He smiled at the taste of it.Kari let a short giggle escape at the sight of the first smile T.K. had put on all day.

While the two children continued to share their meal, the other three children sat around the campfire that was now healthy and crackling with sparkles of crimson embers.Tai and Sora were busy focusing on the fire and eating their food.Tai had found interest in heating one of the berries like a marshmallow at the end of a stick, either to make sure he could have at least one warm meal for the night, or to make an attempt at juicing all of the flavor from the berry and make some delicious preserve free of contaminants.Near them, Koromon and Gatomon chomped on their berries.The plump pink head sat across from the feline and they picked from the same pile in front of them.Izzy sat nearby, focusing his mind only on his laptop, indifferent to the activities of the other children and the digimon.His face revealed a worried look as the computer struggled with functioning correctly.He gently tapped at a side panel.

_Come on, don't do this to me, he told the computer with a thought._

He winced in pain and moaned as the screen began to grow dim.He noticed a small icon begin to blink near the bottom of the display and realized what was wrong.

"The battery is starting to die out," he muttered aloud, no doubtedly trying to draw the attention of his peers."If I don't get it charged up soon I won't be able to use the Digimon Analyzer."

"Well then worry about it after we eat," Tai suggested, not giving the red-haired boy the comforting support he had been hoping for."Unless you can find some way to order a banquet through that thing in the middle of nowhere it doesn't matter right now."He picked up his stick and stared sourly at the berry that had shriveled up into a small prune-like mess.He turned his attention toward the trees far off in the distance, where the digimon were still on their scavenger hunt."Hey, hurry up over there!The rest of us are hungry and it doesn't take that long to gather berries!"

"It does if you want good ones," Biyomon replied to herself, unaffected by Tai's bossy manner.She stepped with careful balance across a thin branch, glancing quickly at the large insectoid who was using his curved claws to poke at the shrubbery of the trees."Find anything good yet, Tentomon?"

"Not at the moment, but I'm not finished yet.Or at least my stomach isn't," he told her while moving through the plants.His oval-shaped jade eyes then noticed something that caught his attention.He dug further into the massive clumps of twigs from a thin dangling vine just a few inches away from his reach.The bulb was jet-black and had small red leaves sprouting around from its top.It looked like a plum, and with a dark, plump exterior as this one had it could easily be concluded that it was packed with luscious juice.

"Oh, boy, delicious fruit!" Tentomon exclaimed as he reached out in hope to satisfy his palette, assuming he had one in his physiology."I just love fruit!"

He opened his mouth and clamped it around the bulb when a sudden cry shook the leaf-covered branches above him."Ouch!Hey, who are you calling a fruit?!"

The voice and tug by the vine startled Tentomon so greatly that he stumbled and slipped from the branch when he tried to step away.He had no time to stretch out his wing appendages and safely stop his fall in mid-air.The top back of his shell slammed into the ground far below him, stunning him into a state of vulnerability.

"Tentomon!" Biyomon cried out in distress.

She was about to take flight to descend after her friend when another black bulb shot out from behind her and slammed against her head.The bird was caught off guard and was sent falling off the branch, crashing along with the other digimon below.

Tai and Sora leaped to their feet at the sudden attack that they saw from afar.Izzy raised his eyes from his computer and just realized that something more serious than his laptop's condition was taking place.Off toward the back T.K. and Kari turned their heads while they ate quietly together.

Within a few seconds several large figures began to drop down from inside the cover of the trees and land on the ground with ease, moving into the clearing.They stood as tall as the two oldest children in the group, with wide yellow faces encompassed by an expanse of large purple and green leaves.Their arrangement, and the fact that right beneath their faces their bodies were constructed from a countless grouping of green thorn-covered vines, made them appear as flowers.Yet that could not be said, for they had eyes and mouths as well, which could not be counted as valid characteristics of normal flora.At the end of each of their four arms were the black bulbs Tentomon had mistaken for fruit.Now it was a wonder how he could have, seeing how each bulb had its own mouth and set of sharp teeth.

"Uh, Izzy, care to tell us what in the world these things are?" Tai asked as he stood watching the creatures making their way onto the clearing grounds.

Izzy smirked."Oh, so now is when you care about my computer's well being?"

"Just answer the question, okay?!" Tai exclaimed as he didn't feel the need to be told he was wrong at the moment.

Izzy stood up with his laptop against his arm, calling up the Digimon Analyzer.Instantly a profile popped up onto the screen.

"They're Blossomon," the boy reported."As ultimate-level digimon they use their Spiral Flower attack to take down their enemies.This is certainly not the type of digimon to hang around with if you're allergic to pollen."

T.K. and Kari jumped up and ran to the group, with Patamon flying right after the two."Are they good digimon?What do they want from us?" the youngest boy asked.

"Do you think _I would know that?!" Tai exclaimed._

"Maybe they just saw our campfire and wanted to say hello," Sora suggested.

"Yeah, and I like to sniff fire hydrants," Gatomon said with blunt sarcasm.

With a quick flutter of their wings Biyomon and Tentomon lifted themselves into the air, recomposing themselves and glancing around to quickly take in what was going on.They were suddenly startled once again as a gruff sound came to them from nearby and something leaped out from the darkness.They both shot away and darted over the heads of the Blossomon who had ignored them and accompanied their human companions.

Out of the murky black shadows of the forest around them came more dark creatures.They were different and far more numerous than the Blossomon.From the fiery glow of the lit branches in the clearing's center, the group could see the new body of masses.Their bodies were made of dark brown wood, their heads jagged and worn around the surface.They stared with deep dark eyes and waved their four stumpy arms.They were as tall as the Blossomon, and as more and more revealed themselves from the camouflage of trees and darkness it was easy to see that there were _a lot of them._

Before Izzy could inform the others of what this other type of digimon was, Tentomon spoke."Those are Woodmon, a very rude and annoying champion-type if you ask me.They absorb all of the energy they can get from any digimon they run into and just go about as if nothing happened."

"There's so many of them!" Kari said in observance."Why are they all together?"

"I can think of one reason," Gatomon offered."That evil little puppet Dark Master sent an army of his to destroy us."

Koromon plopped forward a foot, putting on a game face of anger and courage as the Woodmon began to blend into the small Blossomon population and move even closer, eyeing the children and their digimon.Then, as they collected into one fierce-looking body, the Blossomon let out a wild cry and charged in their direction with their wicked vine arms outstretched and ready to attack.

"Let me at them!I'll make compost out of all of them!" Koromon boldly trumpeted.

Tai reached down and grabbed his digivice from his shorts, pointing it toward the brave little creature."Go get 'em!"

The power within the digivice surged and responded to the boy's own emotions, sending its energy straight into the pink digimon head.

"_Koromon, digivolve to… Agumon!_"

Without hesitation Agumon charged across the ground, in turning calling the bird, insect and feline to follow him.Patamon kept himself in the air, close to T.K., in hope that he would stay safe from harm.

A long Blossomon vine nearly struck Agumon's head but he dodged to the right and avoided it in time."_Pepper Breath!_" the orange dinosaur cried with a large puff of orange-yellow fire that flew from his mouth and ahead of his own run.It struck into the massive army and exploded against the front of the crowd, spitting flames that danced over several of the Woodmon and forced them to stop in fright and put out the embers.

"_Super Shocker!_"

"_Spiral Twister!_"

"_Lightning Paw!_"

The attacks did very little if any damage.Even with Agumon spitting the most effective defense, and Gatomon with a champion-level attack, the army was very much intact and still on the move.The Blossomon whipped their vines at the digimon, knocking them down hard.Yet the unfaltering digimon force climbed back up and tried desperately to hurt the offensive.

"_Pepper Breath!_" Agumon spat another fireball and forced several Woodmon back a foot or two.He turned his head and looked back toward Tai, who was standing very far away from the battle."Tai!You have to make me digivolve to Greymon!It's the only way we can defeat them!"

Tai pointed his digivice out at him."Okay, here it goes!"

Just as Agumon was about to accept the power and jump into the next level a Woodmon caught him from behind and wrapped his arms around him in a tight embrace.Agumon quickly panicked and struggled to free himself of the hold, but all of his attempts failed miserably.

"Agumon!" Tai screamed.

"_Twig Tap!_" the Woodmon exclaimed.He did not find much struggle left in the brave lizard as Agumon moaned in pain and a slight glow poured from his body and soaked through the bark arms.

In seconds several more Woodmon leaped at Agumon, desperate to feed off his energy.He was quickly subdued and crowded around in one riotous gathering.Tai and the other children could do nothing but watch helplessly as their digimon were failing to bring an end to the attack.

A moment later something small was tossed out from inside of the Woodmon pile-up and thrown back in the direction of the children.Tai gasped as he found Koromon bounce hard against the ground and come to a stop close to his feet.

"Koromon!"He darted to his friend and picked him up from the dirt, seeing his face in tight pain."What did they do to you?"

"I'm sorry, Tai," the digimon said in a weak tone of voice."They sucked so much energy out of my body I de-digivolved."

"At this rate we might not be able to beat them at all!" Izzy shouted."Our digimon can not stand up to them if they can be taken down like that!"

"We can't stay here!" Sora exclaimed."We have to retreat before we're all in trouble."

Tai reacted to her suggestion like if it was a sharp slap in the face."What?!We can't stop now!This is our chance to weaken Puppetmon's forces!"

Sora turned to him, shocked by his stubborn approach, especially at such a time as that one."Tai, look at this fight!There's too many of them and we cannot defend ourselves like this!"

Tai glanced around quickly and saw Sora's point.Far off at the other end of the clearing Gatomon, Tentomon and Biyomon were putting up a valiant resistance against the large force, but their attacks were in vain.Some were lucky to even back a few Blossomon away and knock a couple Woodmon down for a brief moment.Yet he began to see a massive group bypass the digimon and walk without barriers to the children's coordinates, looking very, very fierce.

The boy took the stick he had roasted the berry with and dipped it into the campfire, igniting it like a torch.He stood his ground and held the stick like a glowing sword of fire."You're right, Sora, but we can't back down now.We have to fight!"

Sora could not handle Tai's insane behavior and decided she could not let the two youngest Digidestined take a part in his suicidal mission.She turned to T.K. and Kari as Tai took off and tried to draw the enemy's attention from the others."T.K., you and Kari have to get out of here and find somewhere safe to wait."

T.K.'s fears rose up once again.He felt a tight knot form in his throat."But—you need us.We can't leave."

"You have to.Just find somewhere else other than here. Protect Kari and stay out of sight!" she instructed, turning and running toward the blazing fire as a group of Woodmon neared them.

T.K. shook his head.He could not imagine being left alone from the group again.He knew that Kari would be at his side, but how would he be able to protect her when he could barely even handle taking care of himself?

"But Sora—" he started to choke out.

"Just go!" the auburn-colored hair girl shouted with a wave of her arm.She pulled her leg back and called upon her soccer instincts as she kicked a lit piece of firewood at the approaching army, forcing them to halt as the fire made contact with their own flammable bodies.

Kari reached out and took T.K.'s hand, nudging him away from where he stood."Come on, T.K.," she insisted, desperate to flee as much as Sora wanted them to.

The small boy still felt reluctant, but after allowing her to tug several times turned and began to run with the girl.Patamon flapped his ears and flew after them both in a hurry.

The two crossed the clearing and broke through the trees just as a flaming Woodmon was tossed behind them and rolled across the ground.They disappeared into the shadows and escaped from the ongoing battle that their friends were fighting on their own.

The white cat realized that her companion had just left her.She turned and tried to reassure herself she was okay, but to her horror couldn't.

"Kari!" she called out, just as a Blossomon came up from behind and wrapped its crushing vines around her neck.

*****

"Keep going!" Kari shouted to the boy at her side as they raced past sharp branches and puddles of mud and water.

They both made their way down a thin, narrow path that was difficult to navigate through.Their clothes were poked and tugged by jagged twigs that caught onto the fabric.They tried to shield their faces at the same time, desperately trying to move as fast as their little legs could take them.They were already far away from the clearing and did not know when to stop.

"T.K.," the winged digimon began, "where are we supposed to—"

He was cut short when something slammed him from behind and sent him down to the floor, crashing hard into the cold ground.

The two kids stopped at the sound and turned around to see who had fallen. "Patamon, what happened?!" T.K. asked as he and the girl hurried over to his fallen friend.

Suddenly the long dark handle of a heavy object stuck out from the side of the path and collided against the shins of the two.They tripped and landed on the ground, slamming their elbows into the dirt and feeling stinging pain shoot up their arms and sides.

The boy slowly tried to lift his face up from the dirt and looked toward his friend. "Are you okay, Kari?" he asked.

She gave off a slight nod in response as she tried to sit up. "What happened just now?"

Then the two heard the faint evil giggles radiating from all around them.They froze and listened closely as something moved near to their area, shuffling through the branches from all around.Patamon slowly began to regain mobility and crawled closer to T.K., crouching into his lap.

With a flash a short figure leaped onto the dirt path and directed their attention ahead of them.Their eyes reacted with surprise and fear as they discovered the small wooden body of Puppetmon standing and staring at them with his mallet in hand and malicious look in his red eyes.

"Where do the two of you think you're going?" he asked with some of his natural dark tone in his humor."I still run the show in this forest, and rule number one is to stand still when I'm trying to destroy you!"

Kari glared at the villain with hatred in her expression, obviously trying to behave without anxiety around the powerful enemy."What do you want from us?We have nothing that would help you."

Puppetmon smiled."Think again, girlie.I'm bored.I want to play a game."

T.K. shook his head defiantly."I told you I was never going to play with you again."

"Forget you," the puppet said.He raised a finger toward the small girl."I want to play with _her now."_

Kari gasped as she was singled-out to face certain death.The young boy moved up in front of her, blocking her from the Dark Master's sight."You leave her alone!"

"Not likely!"He flipped his large mallet in his hands and began to advance on them, his slow pace deliberate to strike uncontrolled terror in their little bodies.

"I won't let you hurt them!" Patamon exclaimed as he jumped up from the ground and into the air.With that the power in T.K.'s digivice began to rise and transfer into the winged creature.

"_Patamon, digivolve to…_"

"I don't think so!" the puppet shouted, pulling back his mallet."_Puppet Pummel!_"

The digimon slammed the thick hammer into the orange mammal just as a faint white-yellow glow covered his body.Patamon cried out in pain as the digivolve cancelled itself and he was sent into the rough bark of a thick tree, collapsing into a silent heap on the floor.

"Patamon, no!" T.K. cried.

Kari grabbed his hand and pulled him away."Hurry, let's get out of here!" she ordered as they tried to escape.

The menacing wooden boy tsk-tsked."Not this time."He pulled his right arm back and shot out his hand.Several thin wires flew from his fingertips and streamed through the air like needles.They reached T.K. within a mere second, melting onto his skin and clothes around his feet, hands and head.He stopped instantly as the wires tightened and froze him in an awkward and hurtful position.

Kari stopped as she realized what had just occurred and tried to go back and rescue him.Before she could more metallic threads flew from Puppetmon and caught her as well.She felt her skin being tugged at, fused with the ends of the wires and restricting her from even moving another centimeter.She screamed at the sharp pain that traveled through her nerves.Her hand gripped the pink scarf which she still carried with her, trying to divert the pain into it by digging her fingers into the fabric.

Laughing to himself, Puppetmon snapped his hand back and pulled the two kids down to the floor, leaving them vulnerable.T.K. and Kari struggled desperately to move, but much to their disappointment could not even imitate poor helpless worms lying in the dirt correctly.

The children stopped moving and stared up at the digimon who had stepped up to them and looked down with such wicked delight on his face.They felt a cold chill run through their insides as they could only wonder what this insane being had in store for them.

All they could tell themselves was that it wouldn't be good.

"Time to play!"__


	2. Fleeing Light

Chapter Two: Fleeing Light

Chapter Two: Fleeing Light

"_Biyomon, digivolve to… Birdramon!_"

"_Tentomon, digivolve to… Kabuterimon!_"

Tai glanced up at the champion-level digimon as they flew overhead and into the battle."Try to stop them all at once!" he shouted as he looked back down and whipped his flaming branch at a Woodmon who had suddenly gained an irresistible interest in the boy.

The firebird rose high above the clearing as the insect glided close to the ground, driving its feet into the crowd of Woodmon and kicking them into one confused mass.

"_Meteor Wing!_" the bird cried, launching large comets of fires streaming through the air.The balls crashed into the Woodmon and vaporized several into digital dust.Yet more poured out from nowhere and soon replaced the fallen warriors.

"_Electro Shocker!_" the bug exclaimed, sending a ball of crackling electrical power running across the ground and leaving a deep crack in the dirt in its wake.The Woodmon exploded once they passed through its harsh glow.

Gatomon struggled as best she could to free herself from the gripping vines of the Blossomon who held her.She clawed at the vines but it did no damage.She could hardly feel the air passing through her lungs anymore as it continued to hold her.

_It's… it's starting to get… really dark, she noticed._

Suddenly she felt the vines release her neck.The feline collapsed to her knees and gasped for air as Izzy and Sora drove a large branch of fire into the Blossomon's legs, if they could be called that.The Blossomon flailed and screamed as it stumbled away and tried to tend to its sudden emergency.

Sora ran over to the cat and knelt down beside her."Are you alright?" she asked the digimon.

Gatomon looked up toward her."Yeah, thanks a lot for saving me," she told the girl with a weak, irritated voice.She climbed up to her feet and looked up at Birdramon, who seemed to be putting up a really good fight and tilting the battle in their favor.

"Birdramon!Digivolve to ultimate and you can burn all of these weeds to a crisp!"

The girl realized this and nodded."Go for it!"

The bird glanced down at her partner, understanding what she had to do."I'm on it!"

Sora's digivice vibrated and sent a blast of power flowing directly into her glowing Crest of Love, activating the power and streaming its digital particles down to the bird.

"_Birdramon, digivolve to…_"

The bird was enveloped in a blanket of orange flames, transforming the feathers into the outer layer of a humanoid winged creature with talons.This large being quickly took the place of its previous state in an explosion of glorious light and splendor.

"_… Garudamon!_"

Those watching from below stared up in either awe or fear at the sight of the digimon.The bird-human pulled back its arms and summoned the power that it had become familiar with.

"_Wing Blade!_"

Just as it was about to send a wave of fire across the clearing and finally obliterate those attacking them, all of the Blossomon convened at once and directed themselves toward the creature.

"_Spiral Flower!_"

Garudamon's attack stopped as the digimon felt several dozen large vines whip up to it and grab its body from the sky.Sora's face filled with distress as her ultimate-level partner was overtaken and pulled down closer to the enemies.

Kabuterimon did not see his own ambush come.More Blossomon reached up and grabbed hold of the insectoid, pulling it down with unison force.The bug tried desperately to stay in the air, flapping its thin wings and clawing up at the sky in hopes to grab onto something, but all of his efforts were in vain.

Izzy and Sora cried out to their digimon as they watched them being pulled against their will and whipped through the clearing.The large bodies suddenly overpassed the children.They ducked to the ground as a gust of wind blasted across their backs and their friends were swung into a large sect of trees, flattening them under their massive weight.The Blossomon lifted their vines and swung them across the clearing again, skidding them into the floor as they moved them.

The red-haired boy raised his head and saw all that was happening to his companion."No!Kabuterimon, get out of there!"

Neither of the digimon could do anything.The Blossomon then slapped them into a waiting crowd of Woodmon far on the other side of the clearing, releasing them as they were passed on.The wooden fiends wasted no time in overpowering their captured subjects and quickly swamped over their bodies, pinning them to the ground without any means of possible escape.

The two human kids stood up and watched helplessly while the Woodmon tapped the digimon for their power.They flooded over them in a chaotic mass of "_Twig Tap!_" and loud moans.Two bright glows slowly brightened and faded as the crowd descended back to the ground.With that two small figures were tossed into the air like rag dolls and away from the Woodmon gathering.

"Tentomon!" Izzy cried as he ran over to the falling digimon.He caught him with hardly any ease, nearly dropping with him.He stumbled a bit where he stood and tried to balance out."Are you okay?What did they do?"

"I don't know exactly, but I feel like I've been used," the bug replied."I've never been so violated!"

Sora caught Biyomon just in time, holding the collapsed digimon in her arms."Biyomon, are you hurt?"

"I can't talk right now," she said in a weak whisper."I just want to rest.Tell me if we won when it's all over."

The girl glanced over at the boy."Our digimon are in no condition to fight now!What do we do?!"

Izzy shook his head, finding that for one of the first times he could not conceive a good answer.He looked over at Tai, who was still fighting against the armies.One of the Blossomon suddenly grabbed the flaming branch out of his hands and tossed it far to the side, leaving him defenseless.One of the Woodmon who he had burned charged forward and pushed Tai, hitting him down to the floor.The large-haired boy fell on his elbows and was stunned for a second.He tried to crawl away, staring up at the creatures who stared down at him with contempt.

The pink head digimon had failed in his own battle. His Bubble Blow attack did nothing against a Blossomon who he was trying to stop.The flower digimon punched at the head and sent it bouncing across the ground, putting out his resistance. 

"_Lightning Paw!_"The feline was hit in the side and stopped.She collapsed to the dirt in a vulnerable heap, barely able to move as the pain registered.

Izzy shook his head."I don't know what we can do!We can't fight them!"

His statement was soon to be proven correct, as all of the Blossomon and Woodmon stopped their activity and turned in their direction.Their eyes reflecting the glow of the nearby campfire and their own anger, the armies began to make one more advance for the final attack.

*** **

Puppetmon screamed in playful delight as he wiggled his fingers, watching the two kids dangle helplessly from the tree branches from which they were suspended.He made their limbs respond to the commands of his hand and laughed."And they said there were no strings attached to this job.I have to go and worry about little kids ruining my playtime!"

Kari felt the wires attached to her body force her to turn to T.K., who was also turned around on her right.Against her will she pulled her leg back and kicked T.K. hard in the butt.

"Ow!" the boy cried."Kari, what are you doing?!"

"I can't stop it!" Kari screamed, her foot making contact with his sensitive behind and sending a sharp stinging sensation throughout his lower body, making him respond in a cry of pain."He's making me do this!I can't control myself!"

The marionette giggled."Come on, kick him harder!Kick him good!Make me laugh even more!"

Kari could do nothing but feel her body respond to his commands.She kicked him several more times, desperate to stop the violence she was inflicting on the poor boy who she knew was probably scared out of his wits at the moment.She could hear him whimper and begin to moan to himself as she kicked.She shook her head, defying the power over her body.

"Stop making me do this!You're hurting T.K!"

Puppetmon shook a finger."Uh-uh._You're hurting T.K!"_

Patamon, who was suspended at T.K.'s side by the same silver wires as the others had attached to them, shook as best he could under all of the restraint that he had been placed under.The Dark Master had secured him in the tree with the two kids, but under precaution had also wrapped the batpig with thick, red putty-like rubber, the same material which he had used on Matt when he had separated the two brothers from one another.Patamon could not use his Boom Bubble attack to set himself or the others free: his mouth had been covered as well.

T.K. started to weep, begging for her to bring an end to it."Please, Kari, make it stop!" he choked out through messy rivulets of tears.

Kari wanted to yell at the puppet again to quit with this cruel play when all of a sudden control over her leg was gone.Her body was turned around and her back was then facing the small boy.

"Now, it's time for revenge!" the digimon shouted from below, twisting the wires with a flick of his fingers.

Kari felt her scalp scream like fire as something grabbed the back of her hair and tugged hard.She realized that it was T.K., being controlled and forced to tug at her hair.

"Kari, I can't stop!" T.K. screamed."I can't stop doing this!"

"Aaaahhhh!" she responded with tears of agony.

The Dark Master seemed to enjoy his small act.He giggled and jumped at the sight of violence being inflicted on such pure, innocent youths, particularly ones who seemed to exhibit a faint caring for one another.He knew the girl was concerned about the boy and his previous lapse of silent emotions.And as for the blond-haired adolescent… he could only assume that he liked the girl's company.Hence why he felt to make them both suffer together was the best way to go about murdering troublesome children.

"Stop it!" Kari screamed."I thought you said you only wanted to play with me!Leave T.K. alone!"

Puppetmon stopped the action, letting their frail bodies go limp in the air."Are you kidding?I was just warming up!All I want to do is have a little fun!"

"But you said you wanted to play with me!" Kari insisted."If you want to play with us you can leave T.K. out of it."

T.K. looked at her, shocked by her insane suggestion."No!I don't want you to get hurt.He's rotten, you know that!"

"Blame it on the tree rot I caught last month," Puppetmon told the boy.He kept his eyes on the girl, still interested in what she wanted to say."How do I know if you're really fun?You might be pulling a trick to save your friend, and I don't like to be tricked, especially when I don't know you're going to do it."

"Trust me, I'm a lot more fun than playing Solitare," Kari informed."I'll play whatever game you want.I can prove to you that I know a lot of games.Just give me a chance and I'll show you."

The wooden creature went into a brief state of contemplation, pondering over what she had just suggested to him.He knew to be extremely suspicious of everything in the Digital World, particularly those who were Digidestined.If he let the girl run loose, there was a chance that she could escape.Yet he knew he was the most powerful Mega digimon, along with his colleagues of course.But he knew he could not miss the opportunity he had to finish off the eighth child while playing.That's what he lived for, after all: playtime and destroying innocent little pests.

"Okay," the digimon decided, "I'll play with you, but not Checkers 'cause I'm bad at them."

Kari knew she had just sealed her own fate and tried very much to conceal the fact that she knew it, but she couldn't.She gulped.

"Kari, don't do it!" her male companion insisted."You don't know what you're doing!"

Patamon finally seemed able to lift his mouth out of the red securing material tight around his small body and breathed for a fresh lungful of air."He's right!He's too powerful!Don't go with that termite-nest job!"

"Hey, I thought I told you to stay out of this!" Puppetmon exclaimed."_Puppet Pummel!_"He swung his large hammer and sent several blasts of yellow light from the barrel.They struck the friendly digimon and hurt him badly.One of the blasts popped the wire that kept him suspended and he fell hard to the ground, being knocked unconscious on impact.

T.K. gasped in horror."Patamon!"

"You too!" the villain declared as he pulled his arm back and launched another ball of the red putty that had been used on Matt.The substance hit the small boy and quickly cased his lower face, including his mouth, silencing his cries to a level of low, muffled murmurs that could not be comprehended by the speaker himself.T.K. was still able to see and move his head, but because the puppet had not released total control over the manipulative wires he still could not move his arms or legs.All he could do was hang there with the massive weight of his green backpack putting a strain on his shoulders.

Kari felt the strings on her body start to loosen a little.Without warning she realized Puppetmon released her support and she dropped from the tree, screaming.Luckily, the evil digimon had her float in the air in a slow descent, then once she was at the floor was let go completely.She fell on her front and her palms hit the ground for support.Her pink scarf stuck out between her fingers and her whistle swung like a pendulum into the dirt, dangling from her neck.

Puppetmon laughed as the girl slowly climbed up to her feet."Okay, here's the name of the game.We play Tag.You have to keep running throughout my forest until I catch you.Once I catch you… then it's lights out for you.

He flipped and turned the handle of his mallet in his hands, then raised it up at a forty-five degree angle and glared at the girl with an evil glint in his eyes.

"I suggest you start running."

The girl looked up at T.K., then at the Dark Master, knowing that she had no other option to choose from.She started to nudge away from where she stood, away from Puppetmon's reach, afraid that she would be killed the second she turned her back.But with a sudden burst of frightened energy she quickly spun around and dove into the mysterious darkness of the trees.

Puppetmon smiled and waited a few seconds until he could no longer see Kari in the light.With that he charged forward, giggling in his high-pitched voice, and began his pursuit, ready to play the game and hunt his target down.

*****

Tai was too nervous to move in fear that it would provoke those digimon who had now surrounded the group in a tight, inescapable circle to attack and rip them to microscopic, bloody shreds.He looked around at all of the Blossomon and Woodmon who had nudged them into one close spot.Koromon quivered in Tai's gloved hands, his eyes closed tight and his floppy, stringy ears shaking in coordination with his body.Sora and Izzy were frozen in terror right behind him, protecting the injured and weary Tentomon, Gatomon and Biyomon.

"So does anyone have any great ideas?Izzy, you're the genius, tell us what we should do!" Tai shouted, glancing back a little over his shoulder at the boy.

"Oh, yeah, like I have the solution to everything," Izzy replied, keeping his eyes on the menacing digimon ahead of him."Really, Tai, if you want someone to help you plan a means of escape you should ask them when the enemy is _not preparing to—"_

"Oh, just give it a rest already!"

"I don't suppose we could persuade them to let us go over some hot cocoa, huh?" Tentomon asked, hoping that his glib look upon the situation would at least brighten their final moments of life.

"Not likely," Biyomon said."Well, guys, I guess we can say that we tried our best."

"Stop, you're making me depressed!" Tentomon complained.He started to cry to himself.

With that a Woodmon bent low and began to prepare for a final rush at Tai.The boy's eyes widened as he saw the digimon suddenly leap out and fly at him without polite reservation, screaming at the top of its lungs.

Feeling his fight-flight reflex kick in at the moment, Tai twisted to his right to dodge the oncoming attack.He dropped to the floor as the Woodmon flew past where he stood and right around the Digidestined…

… crashing right into a Blossomon.

The entire clearing froze and stood silent with shocked awe as the Woodmon sent the Blossomon crashing to the hard dirt, making it scream in response.The two skidded across the ground several feet and came to the stop near some other Blossomon.

"Hey, watch where you're going you stupid splinter-for-brains!" the fallen Blossomon snapped at the Woodmon.

The brown digimon slowly climbed up and tried to regain its posture."It wasn't my fault!The kid moved out of the way!"

"Sure, try to give an excuse to your lousy clumsiness!" a Blossomon who stared down at him exclaimed."All of you Woodmon are the same!None of you know how to aim correctly!Maybe if you cleaned out that bark in your head you would know better!"

"Hey, watch it you daisy wannabes!" a Woodmon from the other side of the crowd yelled in defense of his kind."You're the ones who cause allergy seasons!"

Tai looked back and forth from the ground where he lay, watching as the digimon shot insults back and forth across the clearing.Koromon did as well, moving his eyes from his seat on the boy's chest.

"All of you Woodmon are all the same!" a Blossomon cried."You can never handle that we make bouquets beautiful while all you're good for is firewood!"

"Speak for yourself you ugly weeds!" a Woodmon shouted."If you knew what you looked liked you wouldn't want to take up space!"

"Uh—Izzy?" Tai began to ask."Do you have a clue to why they're fighting like this?"

"I wish I did!" Izzy exclaimed.

"Like I said," Tentomon told them, "Woodmon and Blossomon cannot stand being together.They're always a problem at weddings."

"Maybe someone should help them all to a session of counseling," Sora suggested, only being heard by her own ears since the loud insult-throwing escalated throughout the clearing with very little signs of ending at all.

*****

"Oh Karrrrriiiiii!" Puppetmon called as he stalked through the dark trees surrounding the path he had taken.He let his vicious eyes dart from side to side, trying to cut through the shadows and find the prey he had let loose for this strategic game of his.He could feel the presence of a young soul somewhere in the vicinity.His black heart, or what he could call whatever he felt inside his wicked little body, told him there was.

He took a step, crushing a twig under his foot.He played with his hammer, turning the handle several times, getting it ready for a good swing at his running target.He listened closely, hoping to hear her run all of a sudden and make the chase a lot more enjoyable for him.

"I know you're somewhere around here, Kari," he said, looking around and raising his mallet."I can hear your heart beating so fast it's gonna explode!Here, let me help you slow it down a bit!"

He received no response, which he did not appreciate much.He frowned and looked toward the trees at his right, knowing she was listening to his every word.

"That's not very nice," the puppet said loudly."All I want to do is destroy you.Is that really so bad?"He stood silent for a moment, then pulled his mallet back.

"HELLO!"

He swung his mallet and completely obliterated a large patch of shrubbery growing around a large tree in front of him.The thick bark blasted away from the trunk and exploded in all directions.Kari flew back several feet from where she had been hiding behind them and fell on her back hard.She winced at the sharp snap of small stiff branches that broke from her weight.The dirt scuffed her elbows and stung the back of her head.

The puppet stepped over the rubble and looked down at the girl.She stared up, realizing she had been discovered and caught.She quickly tried to crawl backward using her feet and hands, her eyes and face locked in an expression of pure fear, her mind racing at a hundred thoughts a second.

"See?You can't beat me at games!I always win!" he declared.

_He's not going to let me live, Kari thought.__I'm going to die.Puppetmon is going to kill me now._

Puppetmon chuckled, raising the hammer."Next time you should run faster.TAG!"He whipped down the mallet.

Kari screamed and rolled to the right just as the hammer struck the dirt, sending a rolling shock wave through the ground.Cracks shattered the flat surface and vibrated the trees with relentless force.

The girl, having dodged her doom by a foot, spun and tried to climb back up.Her leg slammed into the back of Puppetmon's leg and knocked his lower appendages out of lock.

The puppet fell forward, caught by surprise, landing on his stomach.Kari, unaware of what she had done and too scared to even care, pushed herself up and took off at thought-racing speed.

Puppetmon lifted his head in time to see her run through the trees."Hey, nobody does that to me and runs away!" he screamed.With a furious cry he pulled his arm back and shot it forward, releasing screaming threads of silver, cutting across the air with the same velocity, if not faster.

Kari swung around the trees, trying to elude his eyes as best she could.The wires shot past her by a centimeter, missing their opportunity to seal to her skin.But that did not mean they missed completely.One wire raced past her cheek in the blink of an eye.It slit her skin easily as it passed.Another wire shot by her leg and cut her shin.Two other threads tore right around her clothes and left clean razor cuts in their wake.

"AAAHHH!" she screamed in terrible pain as hot, sticky rivulets of blood caressed her soft cheek, running down the side of her face.She reached up and touched it, trying to protect it from further attack.Her leg grew limp from the numbing sensation that grew from her other wound.She tried to put her weight on it but the nerves screamed against it.

Puppetmon retracted his wicked threads and climbed up to his feet.He nearly lost his balance for half a second but let it pass.With a cackle he took off after her.

"See, Kari?!I will never lose to you!"

Kari spun around and continued to run.Her leg ached from the injury.She felt the sharp branches scrape the sides of her body, attempting to shred the flesh and cloth it ran against.A twig that jagged out toward her suddenly snatched the pink scarf she carried in her hand.She stopped for a moment and tried to pull it free from the branch but could not do much in ripping it away.She let it go and kept going.

The wild digimon laughed."It's not that easy to get rid of me!"

The girl glanced back over her shoulder.She saw her pursuer leaping from left to right, slipping into the shadows and escaping from the line of sight.She could hear him shoot through the thick leaves that layered the trees, leaping from one corner to another, so fast that it became difficult to even know if he was about to pop out at her from the right or left.All she could hear was the rapid sweeps that shook the leaves.

Suddenly the evil being appeared in front of her path, jumping down from the trees ahead of her.Kari stopped and nearly slid, trying to halt with the heels of her feet.Terror swept across her face.

"Found ya!" he exclaimed.

Kari had very little time to react.She spun around and jumped away just as Puppetmon swung his angry mallet horizontally across the air.The head of the weapon crashed into the bark of the tree at his side and literally sent splinters flying like large toothpicks into the dark sky.The remains were completely obliterated the second they hit the ground.

Feeling her heart pound like a jackhammer, Kari tried to race as fast as she could, desperately trying to find another path by going back.Her breathing came in furious gasps and her leg began to limp from her injury.

"You're not hiding so easily this time!" the puppet shouted as he reached back with his free hand and lifted the cross of two wooden planks from his back where it held."_Puppet Pummel!_"With one good swing he let the X spin toward her like a deadly boomerang.

Kari had a good second to look back and see the oncoming weapon when her leg gave up in the middle of a step and collapsed.She fell down to the ground on her stomach, missing the X as it passed by overhead.The thing swept across the trees, drilling right through them like a buzzing saw on hyper-drive.Within five seconds fifteen trunks had been broken through and the tall statues swayed and collapsed against one another.

The innocent raised her head in time to see the path she was planning to take blocked instantly by a mess of fallen trees, breaking into jagged logs.She knew that there was very little hope for escape.This digimon knew the ropes.He had battled many others before, and knew the art of destroying life very well.If she was to live, she could not do this alone.

"T—Tai!" she stammered as she tried to climb up, shaking at the pain in her leg."Tai!I—I need you!Help!Somebody help me!"

The cross came flying through the sky back to Puppetmon.He caught it with ease and slipped it back across his back along with the mallet.He did not like the girl's call of distress."No, no, calling for Digi-losers is not part of the game.I think it's time-out for your voice."He raised his hand in her direction.

Just as Kari was about to give another shout for assistance, the sound was caught in her throat as a strange sensation passed through it.She stopped and felt it running like a traveling numbing inside the neck.She reached up and touched it, trying to feel for an exterior explanation as to why it felt that way.Then she knew that he was doing this to her.

She tried to yell at Puppetmon to explain what he was doing to her, but to her surprise she could not even mutter a sound.She stopped and focused on this peculiar new development.She tried to speak but her vocal cords were not working. She tried to scream but even that would not substitute.She could still breathe, but something had blocked all sounds in her throat.

Kari looked toward Puppetmon with a panicked, concerned look on her face.He laughed, lowering his hand."There, now you can't call for anyone to save you.It'll wear off, but by then you won't even be around to speak a word!"

She could not believe what he was now doing to her.She turned and sprinted away, back into the trees that had not been taken down by her adversary.Despite the pain in her leg, she pushed herself back onto another path through the forest.

Puppetmon frowned."Come back!I'm not through with you!" he called as he took off down the dirt path and followed her escape route.

*****

"Petal pusher!"

"Lawn rot!"

These and many more offensive insults were thrown back across the clearing as the Woodmon and Blossomon had engaged into one massive battle against each other.The scene was like that of a cartoon, where two enemies fought in a big act of arm-swinging and dust-kicking.Neither of them wanted to pay attention to the Digidestined children who watched with confusion and wonder from a safe distance at the edge of the clearing, protected behind the cover of the trees and the camouflage of the shadows.

"Wow.They sure know how to hate one another," Tai muttered to himself, watching a Woodmon being thrown into the campfire that they had started earlier in the center of the clearing.

"This just goes to show you that even on the side of evil there's conflict from within," Izzy said in his usual prodigy-child observance."I just wish they didn't have to ruin the night like this."

"Ruin it?Would you rather have them sitting around the campfire telling ghost stories and playing cards?" Tentomon asked, in his usual humorous way."It's better that they fight one another than fight us."

Sora watched a Blossomon being rushed at the side by a Woodmon with very jagged splinters on his head.The Blossomon didn't even feel himself getting impaled and thrown away like a tissue with one good twist of the neck."Still, it's all so bad that they even have to do this.They could have talked it out and resolved their problems nicely and—"

"Are you _insane?_This is the best fight I've seen since I wrestled my Dad for the last pork chop!" Tai shouted to her.

"I'm putting my money on the Woodmon," said Koromon with amusement.

The feline of the bunch rolled her eyes in the simple sarcastic manner as she tried to ignore the insane ramblings of her companion's older brother._Humans.Why do I even bother hanging out with them? she wondered, feeling embarrassed._

It was then that her sensitive ears picked up the faint calling in the air.She could barely even hear it at all.She turned her head and tried to listen over the shouting and commotion going on with the insane battle nearby.Yes, she definitely heard something.

"Do you guys hear that?" she asked.

Sora and Biyomon turned to her."What?" the bird asked.

"I heard someone calling for help," the cat replied."It didn't sound like it was that far away.Somebody might be in trouble."

"You're probably hearing things," Sora suggested."I didn't hear anyone.Maybe you're just tired and imagined it."

Suddenly a thought crossed Izzy's mind as he glanced at Gatomon, remembering the reason why she had joined the group so recently.He looked around where they hid and a worried look started to appear in his eyes."Uh—guys, we're missing some people.What happened to T.K. and Kari?"

The sound of her name snapped Tai's attention away from the heated fight.He looked at Izzy.  
"What?!Kari!"

*****

The girl tried to move as fast and as long as she could, but her petite body could not take the punishment that she was forcing herself to do.It was not everyday that she prepared to run for her life from an insane digimon who wanted to hunt her down like some inferior animal.Her injuries throbbed and continued to bleed a little.She moved with a fast limp now, but it still put her at a disadvantage.

_I have to hide, she told herself.__I have to hide.I can't let him get me or else I die._

Not that far behind, the puppet jogged with an eager determination, not slowing down one bit.Every sharp branch that threatened his pursuit snapped against his body as he passed.He jumped over every rock and loose tree root that offered to trip him up."Don't leave, Kari!The fun's just starting!The oil in my gears can keep me running for hours!"

Kari shot behind a large section of bushes that sat around the base of several trees.She got down behind their cover and tried to hope that he did not see what she had just done.She kneeled, her heart beating so hard her little chest was ready to pop from a ventricle rupture.She wanted to hear her own breathing, to know that she was still alive and was not living through some afterlife fantasy.But she could not find any comfort in that, for she could still breathe and feel the air travel through her neck, yet she could not hear the sound of it going through her mouth.This disadvantage frightened her greatly.

_I don't want this to be happening to me, she told herself, finding it to be the only way she could communicate to herself.__I can't do this without my friends, without my brother.Tai, where are you?! _

Puppetmon ran across the grounds that she had just covered and came to a slow stop as he realized that she had disappeared somewhere around there.He glanced across the area, the malicious glow in his eyes illuminating the evil intentions he had running through his mind."Come on out, little Digi-puke!I know you're hiding around here.I know you can hear me!" He reached back and pulled out his hammer, swinging it forward with a sword-swipe gesture."I promise I won't hurt you.You won't even be able to feel my mallet pound you into a really big mess on the floor!"

Kari kept her body still.She felt the fear forcing her to shake.She fought it, twitching in response.The bleeding from her wounds had slowed, the side of her face becoming hard with drying blood.If she was to live she had to avoid getting hurt even further.She was not going to be able to escape if she was dragging her crippled self through the forest, vulnerable to the digimon that was after her.

_Please don't see me._

Puppetmon stepped across the shrubbery that she was hiding behind, where she was watching him under the protection of the darkness and the thick plant life.She held her breath for a long time as he stopped only a few feet from her, waiting to see if his intuition was correct and the girl was right there near him.

The puppet groaned, stepping further across the path.Kari wanted to sigh in relief but found it impossible.She was glad that he was not looking in her direction.

"This isn't funny!" the digimon shouted."I don't like having to put up with this!Come out now little Kari so I can destroy you!"

Kari followed him with her eye as he darted around, spinning in every direction, trying to allow his internal compass to guide him to his prey.He was growing impatient.The expression on his face now held newfound annoyance.

"GET OUT HERE NOW BEFORE I DECIDE TO DESTROY YOU _WITHOUT THE HAMMER!" he roared in rage._

The girl continued to crouch behind her shield of camouflage and watched him growing seriously impatient.Having an idea suddenly come to her mind, she reached down very slowly and picked up a small rock the size of her thumb off the ground.The pebble trembled in her nervous hand, yet that did not prevent her from pulling her arm back and flinging that rock far ahead of Puppetmon.

Puppetmon received an answer to where she was when he heard the pebble crash into the bushes about twenty feet away.He twisted his neck fast and looked toward where he had heard the noise come from. "Ah, ha!Thought you could play a fast one on me, huh?!"He raced down the dark path after the illusion the girl had set up.Within seconds he was screaming in battle-cry fashion and fading into another sector of the forest, leaving her alone for the moment.

Kari slowly climbed up to her feet, finding it troublesome as her injured leg wobbling under the pressure.She could not believe that her little plan had worked.It would buy her some valuable time to escape for sure, but she could not doubt that he was going to figure out what happened and come back after her.Whatever time she had she had to use it.

She stepped away from the bushes she had hid behind and stepped out into the open.She kept her body ready to react in case Puppetmon had suddenly turned back and was going to pull a surprise attack on her.She nearly stumbled with the pain that soared up and down her leg.

_I have to find someone.I need to find the other Digidestined so that they can help.I have to help T.K.He's all alone and most likely very afraid._

_Just like I am right now._

Knowing that she had to join with another one of her companions before Puppetmon returned for her, she ventured further into the forest and disappeared into the mysterious darkness that she was not sure would lead her.All she could do was hope her sense of direction would be kind to her tonight…

*****

The young boy tried to free himself of the bind that the puppet had placed him under.He tried as best as he could to stretch the material that held his body tightly under restraint.Yet he knew that his brother had no luck of freeing himself when it had happened to him, and if his older brother was not strong enough to break it what hope did he have of becoming lucky all of a sudden?

That still did not force him to cancel all attempts.He still felt that he had to try something.He was left with an unconscious Patamon lying very quietly on the ground below him.He had to help his companion.He could not stand to see his digimon being abused while he had no way of helping him.If he could free himself, he was certain he would be able to get his friend to safety.

_Hopefully I can go save Kari from Puppetmon, he thought to himself._

He found it unusual that he had put priority over the newest of the group, especially since they had not communicated much except for one brief moment earlier.He knew that he wanted to help her.She was one of them, a Digidestined, and being one did not make her an outcast.It made one special, a chosen child among many others.

And right now, he felt that Kari was becoming a very special person to him.

He wiggled from where he hung.He had never thought that she was important at all, other than being the one who had helped them save their home and the entire human realm.Now all of a sudden, after having brought concern over his own personal emotions, he knew that she was one he could not abandon.He had to repay her kindness.He had to find a way to save her.

He nudged his neck just enough that his mouth was able to escape from the binding material that held it shut.He took a good gasp of air through it, trying to refamiliarize himself to it again.He had made some progress now.It was time to get clever.

T.K. turned his head far back enough to notice he was close to the rough trunk of the tree he had been hung on.It was only a few inches to his left.

He smiled.Yes, he had a possible escape plan now.All he needed to do was to move close enough to it to damage the binding putty and cut through.The trunk had sharp sides to put a dent into his trap.With luck he could get himself down.

The boy called up the will to try and move his body as much as he could.The movement he was able to cause started up a swinging motion as the string that held him up responded to the activity.Within seconds he was swinging harder and beginning the first look of a pendulum.

"Okay, T.K., you can do this," the youth told himself as he focused on the trunk with his eyes, trying to twist enough so that his plan would work.

He felt his backpack hit the branch, pressing the putty against it.His return swing caused it to scrape it and leave impressive scratches in the bind, although T.K. could not even see them.He still believed even without looking that he was doing okay.

He swung again, this time causing a greater crack in the bind.He felt it shudder against him.It was close to breaking, he could tell.With one more good hit against the trunk the shell over his body would shatter.

T.K. swung back again, letting the momentum carry him now and the string that held him do the work.Suddenly he snapped his eyes up at the string above him and realized something he did not take into consideration sooner.

That one string was holding onto him, and it was a long way down as indicated by the fallen Patamon.

His eyes widened with distress.He looked back just in time to see his crash into the trunk.The collision scratched through the binding putty and severed its hold on his body.Without much time to do anything, to grab onto the tree, he dropped through the air, the freefall causing him to scream along the way down.He felt the ground meet him without mercy one second.The next second all was silent for him.

He didn't even have a chance to realize the back of his head had slammed against the hard dirt.

*****

"What do you mean Kari is gone?!" Tai exclaimed at Izzy, noticing that his sister had disappeared sometime during the start of the fight.He moved closer to the smaller boy, a threatening glare crossing his eyes."Why don't you know where she is?!"

Izzy found himself at a loss, unable to defend himself against Tai.He was worried that he would take out his anger on him for even bringing it up in the first place."I—uh—I—I," he stammered, crouching back from the older boy's frightening impression.He was surely intimidated, unable to provide a valid explanation for him.

The lack of answering only made Tai more upset."What?!Tell me where you saw her go!What happened to my sister!"He reached out and grabbed the cuff of Izzy's shirt."Where is she?!"

"Tai, leave Izzy alone!" Sora snapped, stepping forward and brushing his hands away from Izzy."He didn't do anything!I told her and T.K. to escape in case they were hurt in battle."

Tai turned his attention on her.The fact that she had sent both of them away shocked him even further.He didn't understand why she would do a thing like that.He knew it was ten times more dangerous for them to be alone in the forest than to be near them.

"What?!" he shouted at her."How could _you?!"_

"It was the only way we could make sure she would be safe!" Sora argued."If her and T.K. had stayed they were going to get hurt.We couldn't take the risk of that happening."

"So you let them go off into the wild just like that?!What's wrong with you?!Kari and T.K. cannot take care of themselves alone, especially when there are Dark Masters out there trying to kill them!How could you do something as stupid as that?!"

Sora was taken aback by the outburst he had given.She had grown used to Tai's usual plethora of idiotic ramblings and careless behavior.Since she had met him she believed that he was only show, that everything he said was really not what he felt and only for display.But as she stared into his angry brown eyes, she felt a dozen daggers shredding her insides.It felt like all the feeling that he had for their friendship had been thrown out the window, along with his sanity.For the first time in a long time, Sora actually felt… ashamed.

She didn't even try to stand her ground.The color in her face flushed and she regressed into herself.Tai continued to stare at her with contempt, waiting to see how she was going to explain herself for what she had done.

"Tai?" Koromon asked, trying to catch his attention as he stared toward the clearing.

"What?" he barked in response.

"Uh, I think we better leave this place.The party's over."

Tai turned around and followed his eyes, wondering what he was trying t o tell him.The anger in his face started to lift as he spotted the one person he did not want to see approaching the clearing in a full run.

Puppetmon ran into the clearing, his hammer raised high in the air and ready to use against that which he was chasing.He stopped and looked around, caught by surprise by the sudden mutiny in his army.He was nearly hit by a Woodmon that had been tossed in front of him.

His jaw dropped open."What?!How many times do I have to tell you all you are not to fight each other unless I say you _can?!" he demanded._

His voice caught the attention of those who fought one another.Fear spread as the Woodmon and Blossomon turned and caught sight of the one who had sent them to do his dirty work.They all knew that they had angered the Dark Master, and with the way he looked heads were about to fall.

Puppetmon moved his eyes across all of them in the clearing."All of you need a good lesson to learn: when you don't listen to instructions you need to be punished."He turned the hammer in his hands."Time to take your medicine!"

With a loud cry the Dark Master charged and swung his hammer at many of the digimon."_Puppet Pummel!_"The next moment three Blossomon had vaporized into digital dust and caused others to fly into an explosion of dirt and fire.

The children gasped at the sudden attack before them.They watched with surprise as Puppetmon went berserk on his own forces, eliminating Woodmon and Blossomon left and right.Tai could not believe what he was seeing."He's going crazy!"

"_Puppet Pummel!_"A Woodmon disappeared in front of the puppet and another flew away from the blast.Several tried to run back into the forest but the Mega digimon moved so quickly they had no time to escape.They became personal with his weapon the second it slammed into their frail digital bodies.

"This is the time when we flee in terror and hide, right?" Tentomon asked, obviously trying to hide his alarm.

"I would concur with that theory," Izzy stated."We need to get out of here before he sees us.We have to hide somewhere where he won't find us."

Tai spun around."No.First we find Kari and T.K. and then we retreat," he ordered.

"Are you crazy?Puppetmon is going to take us down the second he turns this way.We have to escape now," Izzy insisted, growing to be more authoritative in the matter.

Tentomon and Biyomon turned and started to glide away, leading them into the forest to escape."This way, hurry!" Biyomon told them as they left.

Sora and Koromon took off after them, while Tai stood there, unmoved by their thoughts.He shook his head."No, we aren't going anywhere until we find Kari!" he exclaimed.

Izzy and Gatomon grabbed the big-haired kid by the wrists and tried to pull him away."I'm all for finding your sister, but we can't do it here!" Izzy told him.

"I want to find Kari just as much as you do," Gatomon informed Tai, "but even I know when it's time to back out of a fight.Let's go before I'm turned into fresh kitty litter."

Tai still put up a resistance, even as the two escorted them from their hiding spot.He tried to escape their grasps, but all he could do was let them drag him off kicking and screaming to be let go and calling his sister, his voice shadowed by the screams and explosions of the digimon who were being destroyed by their dark leader.

"Kari!"

*****

The young girl felt her body slowly starting to give way to exhaustion.She found it more difficult to breathe than before, her lungs pushing to their maximum capacity and still calling for more.Her leg stung harshly, the wound growing worse with every step she took.She had moved fast and far for several minutes already, well away from where she had first started.To add to her problems, she did not know in which direction she had to go.

In other words, she was becoming very lost.

The remaining strength she had in herself was already wearing thin.She had to stop and rest.It was the only way she was going to keep going.She defied what her body was telling herself and pushed herself further.She knew she would not be able to get very far if she depleted all of the fight in her body, but she ignored the fact.

Kari felt her foot crash into an uprooted plant that she stumbled into, catching her foot into the vine.She fell on her knees, cracking her right knee against a sharp rock.Her mouth responded in a silent attempt at screaming in agony.The stinging sensation that pierced her nerves was so unbearable.

She looked down to find her knee bleeding and dirty.She grasped it, pushing her hands down to create pressure.She tried to crawl forward, hoping to continue on her way, biting her lower lip and pressing her eyelids shut to try and stand it.

_I—have—to—keep moving, she told herself, using her other leg to help her stand.__No stopping now.I—have to find Tai.I need—to tell them what has happened… T.K., are you okay?Please let him still be… alive._

She tried to take a step forward and her legs automatically buckled, causing her to collapse again.This time she shot out her palms, letting them take the blunt of the fall.She gasped for air, truly exhausted.Her sight was growing faint.Her limbs felt weak and she doubted they would support her if she tried to continue.Her determination, thought, was still stubborn and forced her to slowly drag her body across the dirt.She was losing all sense and felt her mind start to sway.

_No… it's starting to get really dark.I can't go to sleep now.I… have to find the others.I need… T.K., please hang in there.I'll… find you._

She could barely support her head on her neck anymore.It hung low against her shoulders, nearly kissing the dirt.Everything that she could see under the milky light of the moon was slipping into shadow.Everything around her, the ground, the trees, the entire night sky was going black.She, too, began to slip in with them.

She tried to utter a sound, faintly moving her jaw in vain.The words were at the tip of her lips yet they could not make themselves come to life.Her dirt and blood-caked cheeks grew moist as tears steamed down and left wet streaks in their paths.She tried to move further one last time, her arm reaching out across the ground in hope of grabbing something to pull herself by.That was when the last bit of consciousness escaped her and she fell flat on the ground, lying still, allowing the shadows to start consuming the child of Light into its hungry, patient darkness…


	3. Light's Fading Hope

Chapter Three: Light's Fading Hope

Chapter Three: Light's Fading Hope

"This way!Come on, keep moving!" the feline called, jogging alongside the others as they escaped from their campsite."The farther we get away the safer we are!"

"Where are we supposed to go?" Izzy asked. "It's still very late.We can't keep running until the sun comes up and we know where we're going!"

"Forget about that!What's important right now is that we find Kari and T.K!" Tai told them as he ran, growing breathless, his athletic body giving him the strength needed to stay in motion."I—_we can't rest until we have them back!"_

"I want them back, too, but we can't help them if we're dead!" the small red-haired kid shouted to him."We have to take care of ourselves first.It's the best thing to do!"

The older boy wanted to argue against him.He could not believe this.His sister was in danger and they were forcing him to run away.If he could, he would run off on his own and find her himself.But the simple fact of the matter was that he, too, was afraid for his life and wanted to find safe passage.None of the courage incorporated in his crest could erase what he was feeling at the moment.

Dirt and brush swept across the sides of their legs as they raced through the dark forest without slowing down for the sake of safety.They leapt over broken branches and dangerous fallen tree items that could hurt them at will.Far behind them, they could hear the loud explosions of pain and bodies as Puppetmon raged through his armies, disciplining them very harshly.They knew he would not hold back on them one bit, and once he was done with the ranks he would quickly start pursuing them to do the same.

Tai glanced quickly over his shoulder, seeing a blast of fire sweep across the clearing they had only been in a minute before.He turned his eyes away and stared straight ahead, trying to shut out the screams of the digimon who were being destroyed, putting a much more important issue on his mind.

_Where are you, Kari?_

*****

"_Puppet Pummel!_"

The evil digimon swung his hammer hard across the air at those of his army that attempted to avoid the blast, screaming for safety.They did not get the chance to do that for past a second.The hammer struck their bodies and left digital dust in its post hit.It blew into oblivion in the blink of an eye and all trace that they had even existed at all was gone.

"I'll teach you to fool around and not listen to orders!" the Dark Master cried as he spun and slammed his foot into the side of a running pack of Woodmon, causing it to collapse itself and fall as a stumbling heap on the dirt.He turned his eyes and caught sight of several Blossomon attempting to escape far at the edge of the clearing, only a few feet away from disappearing into the darkness of the trees.

A glint flashed against his eyes.He twirled the hammer like a baton and turned the head of the hammer in their direction."Hey!Where do you think you're going?!"He pulled the hammer back and swung hard, sending a relentless blast of orange lights from his weapon and having them scream across the air toward the Blossomon like deadly fireballs.The Blossomon did not get a chance to touch the safety of the shadows.The light hit them, exploding the ground around them and sending a wave of dirt into the air.Once the dust cleared and chunks of debris met the ground again, nothing of the creatures was left.

"I will not be made into a fool like this!" Puppetmon cried in imitation of an immature child crying against the doings of the universe, turning and raising the hammer, bringing it down on the nearest Woodmon that was trying to elude him.That digimon instantly disappeared.

He turned and leaped forward, quickly skipping across the dirt at rapid speed.He flew from side to side, slamming his weapon into anyone he saw trying to run.He slapped at the campfire with it like a hockey puck and released sticks of flaming wood throughout the clearing.They hit many of those trying to get away and caused them to stop in panic, trying to put out the flames that had caught onto their bodies.They fell and rolled across the ground in a fury, vanishing in a small explosion of miniscule digital data.

"That's _enough!" he screamed, his shrill voice causing their bodies to stop in mid-motion with anxiety._

Nothing but Woodmon had been left from the massacre that had taken place within the space of three minutes.All of the Blossomon, which were large and handicapped when it came to running quickly, had been caught in the line of fire and were no longer.Now the remains of his army were complied of small amounts of Woodmon, but still plenty.They shook with emotional tremors, wondering what their master had in store for them now that they had halted in response to his command.

The marionette narrowed his eyes and scanned the area, watching them with sharp ice daggers glimmering in the reflection of his red eyes.He watched them all shaking with fright.He tasted the pure, untainted fear in the air, letting it seep into his frail, small wooden body, soaking it into his mind and enjoying every second of it.

"All of you are useless!It would be a waste of time to finish destroying you all," he told them.He lowered the hammer and raised his hand, pointing toward the ocean of trees at the end of the clearing."Now go and don't return until you find someone useful to destroy!"

The Woodmon didn't protest to the idea.Within a mere second they all turned around and raced toward the forest, covering the ground in a massive stampede.They split off into two separate groups that went off in different directions, not even taking one last look back at the wicked digimon who had spared them for the time being.Yet they were grateful, and would do as he asked.They were sure to find something or someone to attack without any provocation, other than the simple reason of keeping themselves on their master's good side, although it could hardly be said he even had a good side at all.

As they evacuated the premises, the puppet remembered that he still had the issue of the young female Digidestined to tend to.He did not want to disappoint his companions who were watching him from atop Spiral Mountain's peak.But the fit of rage greatly depleted his body and he had grown exhausted over the stresses he had just been put through.

He stretched his arms, yawning with pleasure."I'm going back home and going straight to sleep," he told himself."Forget Kari.She wasn't that much fun anyway.She can just get herself destroyed out there in the middle of nowhere by herself.I need my beauty sleep if I'm going to get rid of all the other Digidestined tomorrow.After all, a growing boy needs his Miracle Gro and rest!"

With that said he turned away and started to jump off in his own direction, heading back to the mansion that he occupied, giggling to himself and plotting for what he was going to do the next time he ran into some of the annoying Digidestined again.His dark forces were now deployed and clear of the entire open area, leaving it desolate and silent as their activity now began from within the mysterious shadows of the ever-spanning forest, their presence trailing off into the blackness of the night.

*****

A slight tremor ran across the young girl's cheek as she rested on the cold ground alone and silent under the faint light of the stars.Her neck twitched and her eyelids quivered.She slowly opened the left one as she began to slowly regain consciousness.

_What happened to me?Am I dead?Is this where everyone goes when they die?Oh, please don't tell me that I'm not alive anymore, she thought to herself._

But, quite to the contrary, she found that she was indeed very much alive, and very much awake once again.She felt her body ache and cry for rest.Her head pounded like if there was someone inside pushing against the skull plates, trying to pop them out of place.Her sense of equilibrium was greatly disabled as she tried to move her head and felt it tilt and sway in the direction of the ground.

_I stopped, she realized.__I stopped somewhere.But… where am I?_

She tried to move up to a sitting position but it proved difficult to do so.Her ribs and bones felt tightened from the inside, being pulled against themselves from everything she had put herself through.Her legs were numb and throbbing, unable to hold her up steadily.She was a wreck, and she knew it was going to get worse unless she found someone nearby, and soon.

Kari stared up at the dark sky, trying to make sense of what had just happened earlier.She remembered trying to escape Puppetmon, but then what had happened afterward?She could barely even remember.How much time had passed?Minutes?Hours?_Days?Could she even tell if she was still alive and time continued to have some significant meaning on her life?_

She moved up, attempting to stand.Her body swayed as she tried, her legs refusing to lock in standing mode.She suddenly felt something slick slide against the skin on her calf.Peering down, she discovered that an ugly scab closed the cut she had received from the puppet's earlier activities.However, blood was still pouring out from the deep scrape on her knee she had received just before she had lost consciousness, when she had fallen and hit the ground hard.The blood escaping that new injury mingled with the dirt smeared across her skin.A dark, shallow puddle of life rested around where she had laid on the ground, seeping into the earth.She reached up and touched the side of her face, where the other cut had occurred.The blood was dry like a crispy layer of pizza crust.

She wanted to cry.She wanted to find someone to go to that could help rid her of the wounds.She had always depended on her family for that.She could remember how if she fell down and scraped her knee her mother would take her and comfort her.Her father would tell her to be careful, checking her occasionally to provide some additional relief.And then there would be Tai, sitting there by her side, watching as his mother cleansed and covered the wound, watching with curiosity and concern over his little sister.She could not remember why he wanted to watch her so much.Perhaps he was afraid of something that she had forgotten about long ago. She just knew that she could always count on them to help her out.

But this was different.Her parents were not there with her.They were all in the real world, still staring at the sky and waiting for the children's return.And Tai… he was somewhere else.She had to go through this on her own, and there was little she could do about it.

Kari leaned against the nearest tree that she could touch and looked around.The pendant containing her crest bounced against the front of her stained blouse.She shivered from the cold that ruffled the trees forming the darkness.She could not stay there.She had to get somewhere else, somewhere safe.She had to find the others, no matter what, even if she was lost in the middle of the night.

She tried to shout, but still nothing came out of her mouth.Puppetmon's spell continued to have an effect on her body.She would have to continue going speechless, and wondering when she would finally be able to talk again.

_Please, let them be okay.Let Tai and the others be okay.Let—__T.K. still be alright._

The girl, very carefully, began to limp across the ground and continue through the forest.She refused to stop.If she was going to rejoin the other Digidestined, she would just have to hold onto whatever hope she could muster and keep herself moving, no matter what was waiting for her along the path…

*****

The steady sound of leaves rustling against one another was all that the boy could hear as he opened his eyes.He could hardly move at all.The fall had shaken his bones so hard he was afraid he had broken something.The jarring sensation he could still feel from the impact suggested that.

Despite the thought, however, the boy tried to raise his head and look around, his weak eyelids fluttering gently.He did not feel like he was going to be able to do much.He felt weak, and the fall he had taken disoriented him greatly.To add to that, the pressure he felt by the weight of his green backpack placed even further stress on his mobility.He could not even roll around onto his back if he tried.

Moving his head, his blurry cerulean eyes caught the nearby position of his digimon companion, still resting without noticeable life signatures.He worried for the condition of his friend.Only a few feet away, lying on the ground so innocently, and he couldn't even tell if he was alive or not.

"Patamon, please get up," T.K. whispered to him, trying to wake him from his sleep, hoping that he would respond."Come on, Patamon.Tell me you're okay."

The orange mammal digimon did not move.He continued to lay on his side, his left bat ear draped over part of his face.The poor creature had been hurt so badly, T.K. could swear that he was feeling the pain his friend had felt when he had fallen earlier.He only wished that he could make it stop.

"Patamon, please.You have to get up.Please, you have to get up for me."

The small boy tried to crawl across the ground, hoping to reach out and touch the digimon with the tips of his fingers.A simple brush against his companion's body was all he wanted.If there was anything that would make him feel comfortable it would be to do that.But, unfortunately, even that wish was far out of his grasp.

He pushed himself up slowly from the ground, biting down on his lip as it hurt him to do it.He moved his legs, bending them, making it possible for him to sit up, his balance greatly off as he tried.He swayed as the remaining disorientation took a hard hold over his mind.

_I need to find Kari.Puppetmon is not going to hurt her like he tried to do to me.I don't want her to get hurt because of him._

He tried to lift his leg and use it as support to try and stand up.Suddenly his leg wobbled against him and caused him to fall hard on his stomach.He felt his teeth grind right into the flesh of his lip, the blood quickly escaping into his mouth.His elbows crashed into the dirt and took much of the impact off the rest of his body, but the pain still lingered.

Lifting his head away from the hard ground, T.K. tried to grasp his breath.He could barely even see what was in front of him.The fall had done more damage than he had though it could have.His eyesight was growing fuzzy and he couldn't even tell the faintest detail of anything far in the distance.

But there was something that caught his attention, something that was very close by, resting against the dirt so patiently, as if it was waiting for the boy to discover it and take it into his possession. He noticed it automatically, only a few inches away from his fingers.He slowly stretched out his arm from where he lay, attempting to grab it.His fingers met the cool aluminum and wrapped themselves around the thin string that provided security when draped around someone's neck.Apparently, the security had fallen and the item had gone misplaced.

_Kari's whistle, T.K. thought, pulling it closer to his eyes, grasping it tightly in his hand as if to make sure he could tell whether or not it was the real one with his touch.__She… must have lost it.She probably doesn't know… that it's here._

The strength in the boy's body dissipated and he could not hold his head up any longer.His eyes closed and he lost consciousness once again, dropping his head down, sprawling across the ground in a state of pure vulnerability.All he now saw was darkness, and even in there he knew he was not going to get very far.He would continue to weaken every time he attempted to move through the forest.

Yet he did not know that already, as he laid there, the other thing that was starting to fade with his hopes were his life signs…

*****

The big-haired boy scoured the area in which he and the others had just set foot upon.He shuffled his hands through the thick bushes that lined the grounds and peered into the darkness that they withheld, in hopes that they would reveal to him something that was critical to the whereabouts of his younger sister.Unfortunately, all of the searching that he had already taken up was leading him on empty, and the idea that all of a sudden he would find her hiding inside one of those bushes—alive—made him even more frantic to move faster and keep trying until every square inch of the forest was uncovered.

He parted the bushes that he was investigating now, shoving them aside down the middle and taking a good look to what they may be hiding from him.But much like his earlier luck, he did not find anything helpful to him.All he found was the base to the bushes and nothing else.He frowned and let go of the brush, letting them slip back into place.

_Kari, where can you be? he wondered with anxiety tightening a knot in his stomach._

He turned around and looked toward the others in his group, standing far away and in their own searches."Have you had any luck yet?"

"No, not yet," Biyomon called back to him as she fluttered high above the area and surveyed it, her excellent eyesight proving to be useful but not successful."This forest is just way too big.It'll take us forever to find her."

The boy did not enjoy the current progress and grew upset about it.He glanced around and cupped his hands around his mouth, walking around so that he may be able to project his call."Kari!Kari, can you hear me?!"

The smaller boy in the group moaned silently to himself at the sound of the other one shouting."Look, Tai, we've been searching this place for nearly three hours now.Don't you think that if she was around she would've already come out and joined us?"

"What do you know?!" Tai snapped, his back turned to Izzy."She's my sister, okay?I know how she is and because of that it's my responsibility to find her first.Don't tell me I can't."

Izzy had already taken a lot of Tai's domineering character already, but this was becoming too much for him.His patience could only hold his commentary back for so long.He knew he was bound to burst from such pressure as Tai was placing on him and the rest of the group.

_I understand that Kari is his sister and all, but does he need to take his emotions out on the rest of us? the boy wondered._

He turned toward Sora, who was not that far away from his own position.He noticed something peculiar about her face.He always found her to be the bright, sensible corner of their group, ever since the beginning when they had first arrived at File Island.Maybe it had been all of the events that had led them up to this that was responsible for the change he noticed on her face.He swore that Sora looked reluctant and reserved, silent as she searched her sector with some help from both Gatomon and Koromon.That was something he never saw before in her.

"Hey, Sora," he said to her, "are you okay?"

Sora cast a slow look to the boy."Yeah, I'm okay," she replied rather weakly, almost as if the sun had set down over her soul and she lost all expression of her inner self.She turned back to the bushes and continued the search.

Izzy grew disturbed at the things that he was seeing going on before him.The Digidestined group had split up.Kari and T.K. were missing.Tai was growing upset.Now Sora was changing into someone else.Nothing was the same anymore.It was as if returning to the Digital World was taking its toll on their innocence and affecting them down to their minds.He knew that they had no choice but to defeat the Dark Masters and save those that they cared about, but at what cost were they willing to do it?Was this how they were going to win, battered and stripped of their childhood like this?If that was the sacrifice that they needed to make, they had to go about it a different way.

After reflecting on that the boy knew that he had to do something.He turned and looked toward Tai, who was still calling out for his sister while searching through the shadowy trees that covered the corner he had set himself in.Gathering the courage he very rarely used in situations like this, he walked across the path and over to the older boy.

"Tai?" he asked, stepping up next to him and causing his friend to halt his hollering, looking down at Izzy."I can comprehend why you are so upset.I know it is not in my place to ask you how to lead this team, but honestly I have come to the conclusion that my observations must be spoken.I don't think Sora looks that great right now.Don't you think you might want to apologize for having yelled at her earlier?"

Tai let his eyes wander over to the girl far off in the distance.He could see the slump in her shoulders and the slow way that she moved, as if she found no enthusiasm in her actions.His lips pressed against one another as he took in the sight and he turned back to Izzy."I'll apologize to her later, okay?Sora's a big girl, she knows that I never really mean it.She'll get over it eventually."

"But what if she doesn't?The morale of the group is pretty low right now, and with the current situation I don't think it's going to improve.Really, Tai, you need to calm down a little.You're going to make everyone worried.Personally, your behavior hasn't been normal."

"Do you expect it to be normal?" Tai asked."Can't you go and figure out something to do with that computer of yours that could probably help us?"

Izzy did not take that comment very lightly.He hated it when people made the assumption that just because he was immersed in technology it meant that was the only thing he was good at."Try to focus on what I'm saying, Tai," he began, withholding a candid outburst of emotion."We need to pull ourselves together on this.Your sister is top priority, but we need to act calmly when going about this."

Tai shook his head, his hair bouncing against the motion."No, Izzy, Kari is in danger and I'm not going to stop looking for her.I'm—not going to lose her.You—you wouldn't understand."He turned away, his memories of long ago nearly flushing into his head.He pushed them deep down, trying to hold back any signs of weakness, signifying that what he had done long ago still possessed his mind.He would not let anyone else, especially Izzy, see him break down because of it.He could not let any pressure get to him, no matter what.

Izzy noticed the sudden silence in Tai and realized that there was really something wrong with him.He could not tell what it was, but he sensed it.

_Tai must really feel bad about losing his sister like this, he worried.__Something must have happened that would make him be so protective of her.I wonder what could be making him act so irrationally and so—afraid._

Izzy did not have much time to contemplate the different theories as to why this was so, as a sudden call disrupted their attention and caused them to look elsewhere."Over here!I found something!"It was Gatomon's voice.

Tai spun around and ran quickly across the grounds to the feline who had called them.Izzy followed right behind him, curious as to what discovery they may have made.They halted right alongside Sora and the other digimon there, checking to see what the cat had for them.

"What?What is it?Did you find Kari?" Tai asked.

Gatomon, who was inside the vicinity of the trees in front of them, pointed up at an item that dangled above her, far out of her reach.She stared back at them."No, it's not Kari.This belongs to her.It pays to be a cat that can smell her way around."

Tai and Izzy stepped into the trees, walking over to the item that hung from a sharp branch jagging from the side of a tree.The older boy reached out and grabbed the item from the twig and brought it closer to his eyes, trying to identify the thing with the very little light he could utilize.

It was Kari's pink scarf.

The discovery of the scarf did not soothe Tai's ambition to find her.It only made him want to find her even more.The very thought that she had lost this suggested that she had run into some kind of trouble and had escaped to somewhere.He feared the idea that whatever it was may have hurt her already.

"Kari was here," he told himself, grasping the scarf tightly between his fingers."She must not be far from us."

"Well, that may be the case, but Kari would not want to stay in the same area," Tentomon offered from somewhere high above them, searching the tops of the trees that Biyomon was going through."If she would have run into danger she would have fled as fast and as far as she could."

"That just means we can't give up," Gatomon said, becoming brightened by the new development."If there are any signs that we can find both her and T.K. we have to take the chance.We can't give up just now."

Tai tightened his hold on the scarf even more, digging his fingers deep into the item, as if it was the only memory he may have left of his sister and it would be pried from him and taken away, leaving him with nothing.The very thought worried him, revealing itself on his face.

Izzy, standing at his side, stared up at the boy's face and noticed the apprehension.He could see him lost in thought, deeply concerned about him, wondering what could have caused him to act like that.Perhaps it was Izzy's own disadvantage of not having a sibling to have the experience that Tai had that made him blind to such reasons of behavior.Still, he was worried about Tai, and what lengths he was willing to take to make sure he recovered his sister and took her into his company again.

Tai stared out into the trees before him, lost in their expanse, wondering just how much his sister was suffering without him.

*****

Kari could not do that much as she stumbled through the forest, her injuries taking much out of her.She had walked for what seemed forever, lost in direction, not knowing where her feet were bound to take her to.The exhaustion that was attempting to conquer her body lingered over her, asking that she take time to stop and relax in the comforts of the rest.But that was simply an indulgence she forced herself not to give into.

_Come on, Kari, she told herself, her throat begging to become useful again.__You can do this.You can get through all of this.You can do anything you want to._

The motivation forced her to continue through the perilous night.She dragged on, pulling her injured leg at her side.She had lost all track of time and could only imagine what hour it was.She bet that it was long after midnight.The moon, or whatever equivalent it was to that of Kari's own world's lunar object, hung brightly against the stars.It glowed against the backdrop of the human world's reflection.The night cycle was already past its peak, as she could tell.It was already on its move across the other side of space from where it had begun earlier that day.That gave some clue to the time, and suggested that dawn was not that far away.If she was lucky, she would be able to see the sun once again and bask in its warmth.

For a moment Kari's foot nearly slipped out from beneath her, threatening to make her fall.She quickly panicked and flung herself to a tree for support.She wrapped her arms around the trunk and tried to focus on her current position.She did not recognize where she was.All of the trees were unfamiliar to her.This only made her feel the desperation growing like the cloud of an approaching storm in her heart.

She tried to think of what to do next as she stood there.The walking would only take her so far.She had to do something.She could not stand being alone like this.Despite how much she knew and the observations she had made as she had grown up, she was still a child and had dependency on all those around her, no matter how much she refused to believe she did.She had tried so much to make others think they need not worry of her.She tried to make them think that just because she was young it didn't mean they could not think about themselves.That was why she refused to think about her own needs.Whatever others needed she would follow it, because she did not want to hamper with their own necessities by placing hers ahead of theirs.By being independent she knew she could accomplish that.

But that was not the true way.Independence meant nothing when one is alone.One needs to have the ability to rely on someone that can provide assistance in the direst of times.Without others one is bound to become lonely, and fall into their own traps of seclusion and ultimately doom.That was what Kari was learning the hard way as she stood there, alone in the middle of an uncharted forest, far from home and the belief that she would survive through this alive.

Kari could remember how when she was younger, she had gotten lost in the apartment building that the Kamiya family resided in.She had stepped out of the front door and wandered down the stairs, hoping to go after her pet cat who had run out on his own.But then, she had lost all sense of direction and found herself several floors down, lost and frightened because she was not sure which floor her home was and she was all alone on that steep staircase.She was not discovered until an hour later, when Tai had noticed that she had left the apartment and was nowhere around.He was the one who had taken her back upstairs.He did not bother to mention it to his parents because it was not such a major thing.If she had reached the bottom of the building then he would most certainly mention it, but because she was nearby he felt it was not necessary to do so.

But what he overlooked was that during that long hour she had been in a moment of weakness.That time that she spent, alone, made her feel emotions that she had never felt before.The fear was shoved away and never called back again, but now it was returning on its own.She had always believed, ever since after she had gotten lost long ago, to calm herself down about it, that just because she was lost it did not mean she had to lose faith that she would make it out okay in the end.Now, she was realizing that her theory was not holding true with her.

_And to think, I told T.K. not to be afraid about being alone and away from Matt, she thought to herself.__But now I'm the one who's afraid.I'm not even taking my own advice.Nobody's here to try and calm me down like I did T.K.I can't even tell myself that I'm going to be okay._

She moved away from the tree and stepped forward, feeling the sharp branches cut at the sides of her clothes, trying to cling onto them and pull at her.More memories came to her eyes.She remembered having been sick, or vaguely remembered it.All she was certain was that she being treated for something, something that had taken her away from home and placed her elsewhere for a while.Being away from home scared her.There were even times when she did not get to see her family because someone, a doctor perhaps, was treating her.The weakness that consumed her body during that time left her helpless, and she drifted in and out of consciousness.Those moments also scared her, and made her believe that she was not going to recover.Ultimately, she did, but the emotions were still there.The experience had become a part of her.She could not erase that, no matter how much she tried.

And no matter how much she told herself, when she was alone, she was alone.

Kari closed her eyes and tried to push those thoughts away.She did not want to give in to them.She did not want them to take over her like they had done before.She wanted to be strong, for her brother and the rest of the Digidestined.She did not want to think of herself as helpless.Their needs came first.She could not disrupt their goals and dreams just because of some fear of hers.No matter what, she had to think about _them._

And about T.K., who she had told not to be afraid and was living through his own experience.

_Is this what you were feeling, T.K? she wondered.__Is this what you were worried about?You aren't alone on this.I understand how it feels to be alone._

She realized that she could not stop, because of him.She asked him not to be afraid, and if she became a hypocrite of her own words then she was lying to him and taking him down into his own personal darkness.She could not let that happen to him… T.K. was special to them all.

_I won't break any promises, T.K.I'll find you._

As she stumbled forward and grabbed onto another nearby tree for support, the sudden sense of loneliness was touched with the feeling that another presence had entered the area.She froze her body, listening to the air, trying to follow what her body was telling her.The feeling was faint, but was definitely there.

There was something definitely close by her.

Kari slowly glanced around with her eyes, trying to see what it was that made her feel so uneasy.Then she noticed a faint glowing light.She turned her head and saw something dim in the distance, far ahead of her, down the path that she was following.Through the trees and the space between it and her it was hard to make out, but she could tell that it was there with a summoning quality to it, glowing in the air like a dim light bulb, flickering ever so slowly.

_What is that?Who else would be out here?Would it be Tai?No, Tai doesn't have matches.Who would be making that light over there?_

Drawn in by her own inquisitiveness and belief that it was someone that would help her, Kari moved away from the tree and continued down the path she was taking, leading herself toward that light that seemed to whisper her name without a voice or a sound…

*****

"Kari?!Are you here?!" Tai called, his throat growing hoarse with the continuous stress that he was putting his voice through."Please come out!"

He lowered his cupped hands from his mouth and felt desperate.He was not going to last much longer.He felt a nervous breakdown eminent if he was not going to find her soon.He knew the others would not be able to do without him if that happened, but he would have nothing to do about it once it came.

The fabric of the scarf felt gentle against his fingertips.He caressed the material gently, wondering about how so many times he had seen it around her neck.He could not believe that this was all he could find after three hours, and it very well could be the last item that he would remember her by.

Suddenly the jolt of memory hit his head and he felt the snap of a hand against his cheek, although he was only reliving it through his mind.He reached up and touched his right cheek, where he was experiencing the feeling.The memory from long ago flooded his head and he closed his eyes, trying to shut it out.

_No, I don't want to lose her!I don't want to lose Kari!It's all my fault!It's all my fault!_

He moaned loudly as the tears overcame him and his knees met the ground while he grasped his head.He did not want to relive the hate he had felt for himself then.It was not the time.It was too much for him.It was too painful.

"Tai, are you okay?" the pink floppy head asked as he and the digimon jogged over to the boy in distress."What's wrong?Please tell me."

"Tai, what happened to you?" Izzy asked as he and Sora followed."What is it?"

"I'm fine, just leave me alone!" the boy cried to them.

Izzy began to reach out to his shoulder when Gatomon suddenly raised her paws."Wait, do you hear that?" she asked.

"No," Sora replied."Is there something else?"

The feline's ears twitched as she listened closely to the air.There was a sound that she heard in the forest.A very disturbing sound.

"I hear it.It's coming closer to us."

Tai halted his crying for the moment and opened his eyes, overcoming that moment of weakness and listening to the cat's observations.He turned his head and listened as well.His own ears then picked up the sound.It was of something moving through the trees, across the dirt, something fast and large.

No, not large.It was many.

"I hear it, but where is it coming from?" Biyomon asked.

"It's in the forest," Gatomon told her."I don't know what it is, but it's heading in our direction, and I don't think it's gonna stop."

*****

Kari's mobility was improving on its own as she stepped closer toward that light she had detected.Her injured leg was growing to be less and less of an important matter now.It was almost as if the closer she got, the easier it became to move.Yet she also knew that because she was exercising the leg it was becoming used to the pain and ignoring it.

The light was secluded in the shadows of the trees that surrounded it, but she could see it much better than before. It was certainly brighter up close, the distance having had a great impact on its appearance to her.The air began to emanate a soft humming sound mixed with a twinkling tone, like the sound of a whistle being blown by two inexperienced lips, as she neared.It was hard to tell whether or not it was coming from a person.She could only see it floating several feet above the ground, far from her own height.Perhaps someone very tall was holding a lamp for her to see, but she doubted that thought as she stepped closer.

She nearly tripped as she reached the last couple of feet and grabbed onto another tree trunk to save her.She was becoming quite accustomed to their convenience.She took a moment to regain her posture and looked up in awe to the sight before her.

The light was small, rather too small to be anything she could figure it out to be.The air was sprinkling with particles shining with the same radiance.The sound was soothing, the shadows held back by its comforting tone.The light glowed with a mixture of soft-pink and white, sparking like a star but without such a harsh tint as one.

Kari gazed at the light and felt an awkward sensation wash over her.She could tell that it held some sentient presence deep inside it.It was sent there into the forest, and it had called to her to come to it.

But what exactly was it there for?

_What is it doing here? she wondered.__Why would it be here for me?Is it even here for me?I can't even tell._

The light suddenly began to move.It glided against the air, moving straight back and forth, calling her attention completely.Kari stared up at it with full response.She stepped closer to it, raising her eyes slowly as the closer she got the higher it was to her.She could sense the presence that belonged with the light.

_What are you?Are you here to help me?Who sent you?_

The light, expectedly, did not reply to her.It hovered high above her, stardust sprinkling down toward her and evaporating just three feet away from her face.With that the light began to trail itself across the air and move away from the girl.

The movement drew her in to wonder even more.She stepped closer to it, hoping that it would come down and answer her question as to why it had arrived.But the light seemed to be eluding her, becoming reluctant with every step that she took.She almost felt as if it did not want her to come close and asked that she step away.

_Wait, Kari realized as she stopped moving for a moment.__It's not trying to get away.It wants me to follow it.It wants to take me somewhere._

Her new thought seemed to be close as to what the light was doing.With every step she took closer it moved away very slowly, heading further down the path that led through the forest.Of course she could only assume that that was the reason as to why the light was behaving this way.She could not be certain unless she followed it and found where it was going.

Kari continued to stare up at the light, following its path, as it continued through the trees and led her down even further into that wicked forest.She had no clue as to where the light was going to stop.She only had to continue and find out for herself, the shadows taking over the space the light left behind it and letting the girl walk deep into them, closing the path behind her like a massive fog and losing her into its deepness.

*****

"We shouldn't stay here.My suggestion would be to get as far away from here before whatever it is arrives for us," Tentomon insisted, buzzing down and lowering himself to the floor.

Izzy nodded."I agree.It's too dangerous to stay.We need to start moving before we end up like those digimon that Puppetmon eliminated.Tai?"

The brown-haired boy could sense that danger was about to arrive.The sound was growing larger, and louder.When it arrived it was not going to be good for either of them.Something had to be done.

Tai took a deep breath, still reflecting on what he had gone through just a few seconds before.He had to stay strong.Whatever he did, he could not show weakness.He was their only leader.They would not be successful if he gave in to his fears.

"Tai?" Izzy repeated.

Sniffing away at his tears and wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand, he turned back to Izzy, fully composed once again, hiding the fact that he had been crying in front of them."Yeah, I'm okay, Izzy."

"I can see something moving through the trees," Biyomon observed from her high position, watching as the leaves shuffled with activity and the trees swayed against whatever it was that was going past them."They're getting really close now."

Tai quickly reached down into the pockets of his shorts and fished for his trusty mini-telescope.Once he felt it he pulled it out and lifted it to his eye.The lack of light did not help much, but he still made an effort to see what was rapidly approaching them.He could see deep past the shadows and anywhere where there was moonlight shining through the treetops.With that he was able to see what was in there moving.

His jaw dropped in horror.

"What is it?What are you seeing?" Gatomon asked, desperate to know what it was.

Tai lowered the telescope and gazed out with a lost look in his eyes."I have only one suggestion…" he told them as the edge of their area was suddenly broken across by the bloodthirsty army that cut through the shadows.

"…RUN!"


	4. Light of Two Souls

Chapter Four: Light of Two Souls

_Author's Note: I am SO, SO terribly sorry in the long wait in updating.I'm serious, I never meant for this to happen and I deeply regret that I kept you from the next part of this fic.I know that I had promised to get more parts up a lot faster than before, and I apparently did not keep that promise.You see, my computer's hard drive… well, it killed itself about the time I was planning to get that next part out.And even worse, it looks like it suffered a serious head crash that would not only mean an expensive process of trying to get the data recovered, but the possibility of not even recovering anything at all.Since then it has yet to be fully taken care of, and hence explains part of the reason I haven't updated.I've also, since I was able to find the rest of the fic on a disk copy, been working off public computers, and that hasn't been a treat for me.I hope you can understand that I in no way meant to keep you waiting for so long and I apologize for such an inconvenience.I hope you can forgive me for what has happened._

Chapter Four: Light of Two Souls

"Move!Move!Move!" Izzy cried and spun away as the Woodmon stampeded into viewing sight and raced toward them with unimaginable speed.

The grounds thundered against the unstoppable bodies, pounding with a force that would crush anything it crossed.A mass of dark brown figures could be seen moving like a wave that covered the floor, sweeping like a plague chasing down victims to claim.

Tai and Sora turned and followed Izzy, as Gatomon hopped onto her paws and sprung into a feline leap.The boy pocketed both the mini-telescope and his sister's scarf in fear that he would drop them.Biyomon and Tentomon took to the air while Koromon hopped into Tai's hands and wished his friend would be able to run faster than he would ever be able to all of a sudden.

"Come on!Go! Go!" the bird shouted as they headed through the woods before them.

The Woodmon's blue eyes pierced through the obscure shadows and caught glimpse of them instantly, targeting them with laser-precision.They followed their trail without deviating.Their hunting skills made up for their intelligence tremendously.

Sora glanced back at the mass several yards away.The amount of distance between them frightened her as she realized they could very well just jump out and pin one of them down.She only hoped that they were not smart enough to think of that idea.

She turned around and stared forward—just in time to see the tree in her path that she was about to run into.

"Look out, Sora!"

With that shout a hand had reached out and grabbed hold of the back of her shirt, pulling her away only inches before she would have crashed into the tree.Sora nearly slipped from the sudden action but continued to run away.She turned to her side, in surprise to see that it had been Tai who had pulled her from her near-accident.

She didn't understand what had suddenly overcome him, but knew she was grateful for his caring.Yet he wasn't even staring at her, only forward at what he was running through.He couldn't even hear her whisper a faint, "Thank you."

This only confused the girl more.

"We can't keep running!We have to fight!" Gatomon shouted back to the Digidestined as she used her amazing feline reflexes to leap against the tree barks and dart quickly in several directions at once.

"We can't!There are just too many of them!" Izzy argued, holding tightly to the precious laptop of his."It would be a waste of time to even try!"

"Well, we have to do something!" Tai yelled."If Puppetmon wants a fight we have to give it to him!We can't let him continue to do this to us!"

"But what can we do?!_They're_ the ones who have us running!" the pink bird in the air pointed out, flapping her wings endlessly, enough to challenge that of a hummingbird's activity.

Suddenly a tree ahead of them snapped from its base and began to tip over in their direction.They halted for a split second and screamed as they all cut a quick turn to the left and ran.The tree came down like a sword, cutting into the tops of those around it.It slammed into the ground and completely blocked the path they had planned on taking, forcing them into the untouched territories of the forest.

"This is stupid!They're going to track us down no matter what!" Tai screamed.

"So then do you have any suggestions to what course of action we should take, Tai?!" Izzy snapped, growing painfully tired of the older boy's complaints.

Without warning several more trees began to tilt over from all sides. It became apparent that the Woodmon were pushing them down and using them to attempt a blockade to the Digidestined's escape.Turning sharply away from the spontaneous threats, they further deepened themselves into the forest itself.

"Try losing them, running in circles, I don't know!Just keep running and stick together.We'll figure something out!" Tai replied.

All the while, his main concern continued to be his sister.Despite the impendent danger he and the others were facing, his thoughts centered on what he could do about Kari.

_Kari, I'll get of this and find you.You'll see…_

*****

Glowing brilliantly with a faint hue, the light hummed through the air and continued to lead the girl across the ground for some time now.It sparkled for her, as if hoping it would further her interest in it and keep her entranced in its directions.But there was no need for it, for she was fully interested by it and would continue to follow it, knowing that somehow it would help her or lead her to something that would.

_It's so pretty_, she thought._But why does it want me?Did I remember seeing something like this before?I know I did, but I can't even remember when or if I did.My memories are so scattered.I want to trust this thing, but what if it's some evil trick by some Dark Master?_

_No, it can't be an evil trick.It's too beautiful to be from the Dark Masters.It's something else.Where are you taking me?Can you hear my thoughts?_

She knew that to some extent it could tell what she wanted to know.The light could sense her curiosity.She could tell.Somehow its essence gave off that knowledge.She felt like she could trust what it was doing.But was that what she wanted to believe, to satisfy her own worried thoughts and bring her to ease about what was happening?Or was that just what the light wanted her to believe, hoping to disillusion her in a subtle manner?

_Where are you taking me?Do you know where Tai is?Please, you can tell me.I won't tell Puppetmon, if that's what you're thinking._

The light continued to be silent to her.The only actions it took was sparkling in its wake across the air and guiding her.She was surprised by her own ability to move again.It was as if the light was bringing strength into her injuries and making them numb to her, making it so that she would be able to follow it.If this light was from an origin of benevolence, then perhaps she would be able to survive.

But she was not ready to let go of her suspicions, seeing how it did not answer any of her questions.

The light suddenly began to lift itself higher, away from the distance between it and her face.She craned her head back so that she would be able to see it even better.She walked without staring in front of her, continuing down the path she had taken ever since this entity had come to her.It had a message, encased somewhere in its cryptic actions.Kari knew to believe that much.She only wished that someone like Tai was there.She knew he was not exactly the brightest one in the bunch, for his actions were foolish many times over, but he was her big brother and knew what it would be trying to do to her.Anyone else would be able to do it as well, including T.K.

The image of poor T.K. faintly drifted before her mind.The sweet child was still alone, somewhere in the forest, probably at the hands of Puppetmon for all she knew.She needed to get back to him somehow.She had to find him.She then suspected that this light before her knew the answer to how she would be able to do that, help protect the innocence she had discovered in him earlier.

_Do you know where T.K. is?_ she asked through thought, hoping it knew about the spell the Dark Master had placed over her voice earlier.

The light slowly came to a stop, in response to her question.She then realized it could hear what she was thinking.It could understand her fully, otherwise it would not have sensed her query.The young girl knew this could prove very helpful to her.

_Do you know how I can find him?I know you want me to keep following you, but I need to find T.K.Can you tell me where he is?_

The light hung in the air with silence, with the exception of the faint hum it placed in the air.It did not respond to Kari's new set of questions.Instead, it replied with some disregard of them totally.

_Do you know where he is?Please, tell me.I know you can.That's all I want to know._

The light continued to ignore her, which Kari did not find pleasant at all.

_You know, you're not really that nice,_ she thought.

As if in response to the silent comment, the light suddenly began to grow dim.The life it incorporated through its glow diminished, as it rose higher another foot, and the outer edges of its star-like attributes crisped off into the air and vaporized, taking with it the dazzling edges that constituted its center.It began to drift off down the path it had so far led her down, flowing against the air and letting it carry it away.

Kari realized her mistake and began to have regrets for such impolite behavior as the light moved away._Oh, please don't go.I'm sorry.I didn't mean it.Don't go away._

Her thoughts were not answered by the entity.The light continued to fade, more so as Kari tried to keep up with it.She extended her right arm and reached up as far as she could, attempting to touch it, hoping that by capturing it in her grasp it would not escape and leave her to the evils of the forest.But the light would not let her do that.It had risen too far above her, making it impossible to try.Yet that did not keep her from letting it leave her.She focused all of her concentration on the light as it grew even dimmer, its previous radiance sapped away as it slipped into nothing.

_Please!Don't leave me!_

The light finally let its last sparkle fly away and fade into nothing, taking with it the warmth and hope that she had believed would stay with her.

She did not see the dive in the ground's elevation and looked down too late to realize that she had come to the edge of a dangerously steep hill.She could not stop herself in time and felt her feet slide away from solid ground as she flew forward.Her body slammed down against the side of the ditch and she rolled down swiftly and hard, feeling the jagged rocks and branches that blanketed the floor jab her all over.She felt them pound and tear against her clothes and skin, flipping all over her too fast that she could not handle suppressing the pain that stabbed her all over.She opened her mouth in hopes of screaming, but not a sound escaped her throat.

The roll downward ultimately came to a stop.She came to a rest at the bottom of the ditch and laid there, sprawled in a hurtful position against her back.Silent and still.All alone once again, with nobody taking her in but the cold that snipped at her wounds and waited to take her entirely.****

** **

*****

** **

"What's your plan, Tai?What do we do?" the soft pink head asked as he bounced against the thin frame of their leader.

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking, okay?!" the boy yelled in defense as to why he had not formulated a direction toward safety.He leaped over a small bush that stood in his way, his feet stomping down and taking off into flight once they touched the dirt again."Stop being a backseat driver, Koromon!"

The group continued to run through the forest, as the gears in Tai's brain began to work themselves and try at constructing a plan.It was not an easy task for one like him to work through.He was known for his simplicity, for his spontaneous leadership and bravado.It was not his fault if it was difficult to create a plan when running through the dark from an army of their enemies.

Still, that did not alter his productiveness.He knew they could not defeat the Woodmon when they were currently weak.They would have to regain their strength before engaging in one-on-one strenuous battles.They would have to find a different approach to it.They had to strike without getting themselves hurt, getting by with their standard abilities and whatever they could pull themselves to do.But he realized there was very little they could do inside a forest…

If light bulbs could flicker above one's head, Tai would have a halo surrounding his, and a very large one considering the size of his hair.

"I think I might have a plan!" he announced.

"_Might_?Oh, that's real assuring!" Izzy shouted, surprised by the word choice the kid had utilized.

Tai directed his attention toward the boy."Izzy, we need to confuse the Woodmon before we try anything.Did your laptop say anything about them that could help?"

"No, but we could try something!All of the Woodmon are concentrating their eyes on us, right?We could try to blind them somehow at the same time.A bright flash of light may be able to mess with their vision and momentarily provide us with a suitable cloak to lose them under!" he answered, dodging a branch that nearly took off his ear with its sharp point.

"Perfect!Gatomon, I need you to give those guys a little taste of their own medicine," Tai instructed, moving his eyes toward the feline."Run ahead of us and create our own blockade so they can't follow us for a while!"

"Of course," she fully accepted without argument.Using her agile reflexes and the gift of springs for tendons, the cat digimon flew ahead of them like a cheetah across the plains.

"We need to distract them now!" Izzy shouted."Tentomon, create a flash bright enough to disorient their view."

"Oh great, now what am I, a firefly?" the red beetle asked with a sarcastic undertone as he slowed his flight velocity and turned around to face the oncoming traffic.He gulped at the glimpse of all the Woodmon headed straight toward him, seeing all of their glaring eyes, concentrated solely on him now, only falling for the children's intention of distraction.

"_Super Shocker!_" Tentomon exclaimed, sending an illuminating discharge of crackling electricity into the air.

The glow of the electrified particles in the air flashed brightly across the darkness.The army of digimon halted toward its flanks at the lead, blinded by the light Tentomon had delivered to them.Those pairs following the ones in the front found themselves on an unpleasant trip as they collided into their bodies and rolled into a pileup of wood.

"Well, my work is done!" Tentomon said to himself proudly as he buzzed quickly after his friends once again, seeing that they had gained some distance since the last time he had looked.

"_Lightning Paw!_"A blur to them far ahead, Tai and the others watched as Gatomon did some quick work on two large trees across from one another and sent them tilting toward the fleeing group itself.

"Hurry!Get past them!Go!" Tai exclaimed, his eyes watching the twin towers falling down, with them about to take on the full impact.

The children and their digimon managed to break across the ground just in time to narrowly miss their dooms.The trees slammed hard into the forest floor, causing it to tremor violently.They had taken down a few nearby trees as well, only adding to the efficiency of their entire purpose. Seconds after their collapse a fine and complicated mess of shattered bark, clumped leaves, and haphazardly-strewn branches had been left, not only blocking the path but also creating a wall of debris that spanned several yards, an obstacle that would be difficult to get across.Ultimately, though, it would be breached.

"Good work, that will keep them off our backs for a while," Tai commented, continuing his run although the immediate danger had been halted for the moment.

"But it will… not hold… them back," Sora mentioned in a strain of her breath, although her words were not received by Tai and not handled with a response.

"That's something we can be sure of," Izzy commented, having heard the girl and agreeing with her truth."Those Woodmon may be down for the count but they will keep pursuing no matter what."

Having gained some distance far from the barrier they had established after a few minutes of moving quickly and without stopping for mere distractions, Tai began to decelerate and pause for a breath of air.They had gone far enough to buy some time before they could be found.Long, extensive trees bordered the small clearing that they had entered, with many broad branches layering them all around.For some reason about a little over a dozen logs had been cut clean from the forest floor and left there, littering the ground, indicating that an earlier battle had taken them down entirely.The clutter was easy to navigate through and pass, even move away if give the effort.Somehow they had been cut down several times from their original sizes, their broken branches and leaves scattered across the floor with very few remaining on the trunks.

But Tai's fatigue took too much away from him to care about the current setting.His athletic nature had kept him under condition and persistent to the extreme work his body called for, but the long night had finally begun to take its toll not only on him but the rest of the group, and they were beginning to suffer from it.The boy found it hard to take in oxygen.His lungs and chest choked for it.His arms and legs felt like they were on fire.The cool air could not do much for him.He could practically feel an aura of heat wrapped around him, threatening to evaporate the precious, cool air.

Koromon slid out of his grasp and let himself fall down to the ground, giving his friend the opportunity to rest without him as an extra burden of weight.The others moved near the boy and stopped as well, tired just as much.

"We… need to… stop for a while," Tai managed to cough out, his head lowered so as to level the flow of blood in his body."We can't run forever… we have to regain our strength, get to safety."

"Good idea, I think I know where we can rest for now," Biyomon said all of a sudden, lifting up and flying high toward the tops of the immense trees standing around them.

Izzy, having neither the strength nor the motivation to continue standing on his feet, let his knees buckle and guided himself to the welcoming ground.He set his computer down as he reached back to pull off his laptop-carrying backpack."Tai, we are not going to be able to avoid those digimon again," he said as he opened the pack and slipped the computer inside."We were lucky enough to stop them for now, I doubt that we will even get a second chance at all.We have to stop them before they recover.I can anticipate that none of them will be happy with us the next time we have an encounter."

"I'm trying my best to think, okay?" Tai stated defensively, growing to the point of an outburst against the prodigy's uncanny stating of the obvious."I don't see you doing much with that computer of yours, so you don't have room for an argument right now."

The comment stung Izzy and he shot back."You know, I'm wondering what allows you to act this way when your actions haven't helped us one bit."

"I'm doing just about everything to help us, so what are you complaining about?"

"Your actions have not helped in getting to your sister.If you really wanted to find her you would have helped put an end to this problem already!"

The taller boy's eyes narrowed scornfully.He bit down on his lower lip to keep his rage concentrated on his own body, rather than the option of inflicting it on the other youth's."I'm the leader and I will decide on how we deal with these situations.You don't question the way I get us going," he spat out with a deep, threatening impression, trying to frighten the smaller child enough that he would back down.

The heated argument grew to be too much for the feline to swallow down without speaking out.She stepped out in front of the two quickly and raised her paws to signal their attention."Okay, that's enough!" she snapped at the two, upset with their display."I don't care what you two boys have to fight over, you could take care of your human business later on!"

The two now moved their eyes toward Gatomon, sensing her apprehension immediately and interested in what she wanted to contribute.They had become settled to accepting the white cat as part of the group, especially with her cooperative efforts in the past to fight with the team.But such an outburst was one they had yet seen, and so they wondered why she would be so angry with them now.

She glanced from one boy to the other with her cool sapphire-blue eyes."My real concern right now is Kari, T.K., and Patamon, that's all, and we will not be able to rescue them until we have dealt with Puppetmon's forces once and for all.If any of us are going to survive we have to fight the enemy, not each other."

"Gatomon's right, we're falling apart here," Sora agreed, stepping into the forum now, moving over to Tai and Izzy."You two should just stop acting like little kids because it won't help either of us."

"I thought you all _were_ little kids," Tentomon pointed out, hovering around the group and lending his own observation, although it was not entirely focused on the general topic.

Tai smirked at the subtle humor in the insect digimon's words, yet understood the truth behind the point."No," he murmured softly to himself, turning his eyes away from the other's gazes."Not anymore."

He caught a look at Koromon and let his eyes fall upon his.The small creature stared with a worried look locked on his face.He had most certainly feared the developing change from anger to hate in his human partner, and wondered as to what steps he would take now.Those thoughts were passed into the air and absorbed into the boy.He softened his hardened expression and realized the example he had set upon his closest friend.He understood that such a move was not what he had wanted to take, at risk of losing the established friendship between them.

"We've changed too much now to be just kids anymore," the boy added, "done too much that could keep us the same.But we're still Digidestined, and that will always stay the same for all of us."

Tai turned toward the others, stepping away from the place where he had expressed his darker emotions just a moment before."We fight now, we get this over with once and for all.Those Woodmon are going to be sorry they ever came after us."

"Glad to see you're back on track, but we still need a plan," Gatomon acknowledged."How do we fight back?We can't surely take them out all at once, not with us like this."

Just by chance, at that particular moment, several large green vines dropped down and dangled before them.Tai and the others jumped back at the sudden appearance of the vegetation and peered up to find Biyomon making a descent through the air.

"There you go," she reported, hovering to a position just above their heads, flapping their wings with some strain."These vines are strong enough to support all of your weight.You can use them to climb up into the trees and stay high in them so they can't find us."

The notion of climbing up out of sight seemed to spark some interest to Tai's constructive thoughts.He reached out and touched one of the vines, feeling them roughly and letting the gears start up again as he realized how he could fight back for sure.

"Biyomon," he began, grappling his fingers around the thick plant life and smiling to himself, "you may just be the smartest bird-brain I know…"

*****

The void of unconsciousness could not numb pain, for it let it run throughout the centers of the functioning brain activity and made sure it could not be blocked by the powers of the mind.It continued to act as an unremitting force of nature, untamed and uncalled for, creating great emotional and mental damage to its host after having afflicted the physical.

The pain the young girl experienced urged her to awaken to a state of awareness once again.Having been battered and tossed like a lifeless accessory, much of her body responded against the call for simple gestures.Her neck felt as if it would snap and pop itself into dislocation from her spine as she lifted her head.Her eyes had lost all life, the pure, peaceful gaze of an innocent gone with the security she had naïvely believed was amongst her.

_Where… what… what happened?How… did I fall?Where is the… the light?_

Her sight wavered and grew blurry for a second, obscuring all ability of sight for a moment.Any and all strength within her body had been severely compromised.She could sense it.It would not be long before she lost completely to the darkness.The force of life within her soul, her hope for survival, was diminishing at a slow but sure rate.If she had placed her trust in getting to the rest of the Digidestined in time to find true protection from death under their care, she was soon to be disappointed.

_Now I remember_, she thought._The light… it left me.It left me on my… own again._

Her own thoughts drifted inside her head.She pressed her palms into the ground beneath her and attempted a push-up.It collapsed in on itself mid-way, forcing her arms to bend.She pushed them just in time to get her elbows as support and now had her head away from the dirt. 

Suddenly a slick string of blood slivered from her brow down toward the dirt like syrup.Kari's eyes caught the movement and realized that she had been injured—severely.Bending her arm high enough, she touched her forehead and felt the sting when her finger crossed over the long open gash.

She knew the sign was very, very grave.

Straining herself, she rolled over onto her back and faced the sky.She slowly pushed her arms until they locked at the elbows and helped her in sitting up.Her eyes lowered and she could see the further damage the fall had caused her.The clothes were torn and caked with so much dirt and blood it would be hopeless to wash them clean.Her bare legs… they had been dealt the worst.Scraped, almost to the point where the bones in her shins would be jutting out if slammed against hard enough, they would not endure.The trails of blood that covered them were a strong indication of that.She could still feel them, and for that she was relieved.But she also sensed that if she tried to run they would most certainly become useless and it would be a sorry sight for one to see her try to continue… assuming that one would find her in the remote and silent reign she had come into.

Kari looked away from her body and up at the top of the ditch.She could not scale the hill again.The slope would be cruel to her legs and send her back down.She could not go back the way she came, even if she felt it was the only way she would find the light, that light which had guided her, again.

_No… it left me_, she told herself, rolling to her side and beginning an attempt to stand._It let me get hurt.I made it go away.It's my fault.It won't help me again.I have to help myself… and everyone else._

Her promise to T.K. still lingered inside her head.It would not perish, and she was glad for it not happening.Yet she also realized that she would not be able to fulfill it now.She would not be able to reach him in such a condition, and would most certainly give out before she actually found him and his helpless digimon.This angered her, not for the situation but for herself.She had gone on believing her independence would save her, would keep her from harm, but now she was certain it was all a lie.She was not how she saw herself.She had not been called upon like the other seven children had in the beginning.She did not belong to the group until her digimon guided her to them and her purpose.But just what purpose was there for her?She was becoming a problem for all of them.Her inexperience was getting the best of her.

She could not handle any of this.All of the circumstances that she had found: being attacked by evil digimon, being separated from the others, falling into an environment and situation where she would not be able to survive, it was all just too insane for her.It was like something was trying to break her, prove to her that she had made a mistake coming to the Digital World in the first place.Perhaps it was her own consciousness working secretly against her, trying to make her realize she did not belong and that her presence in the DigiWorld was insignificant.Whether it be the true explanation or not, she was ready to believe the truth, the idea that she had failed to see.

She was an inconvenience to all of them.

_It's true_, she thought._I'm not important, I only hold others back.I would have found Tai, Gatomon, T.K., all of them if I wasn't so stupid.But I can't take care of myself.I thought I could, but I can't.I can't do anything.I put my friends in danger now.I messed up everything.I lied to them and myself.I can't do anything!_

_"I want to make Matt proud.I want him to believe he doesn't have to worry about me.But I don't know… if I can handle myself being alone without him…"_

The scene from earlier that night played in her mind, and the thought of misleading T.K. and bringing his own doom sickened her.She shook away the thought instantly and pulled up a new inner strength, understanding exactly what she had to do.

_No, Tai told me I have something… called destiny.I was chosen to come here because I'm supposed to help everyone.I might not be able to keep myself from getting into trouble, but everyone runs into trouble no matter what.T.K.'s facing the worst of it now.No, I was brought here because I have a job, and if T.K. is in danger I have to get to him._

_This is some kind of test, I know it is.I'm being tested to see if I'm really a Digidestined.That's why I've been kept from T.K.That's why I… I can't find him.I have to believe that I can do it.I have to keep trying.If I'm a problem it's because I'm too afraid, but I'm not going to be afraid anymore.I'm going… to find T.K._

Straining herself until she was ready to cry, she got her feet flat on the ground and slowly lifted herself up to stand.Her legs almost let her fall but her light frame and weight dealt with her nicely.She glanced around and studied her surroundings more thoroughly, seeing the usual expanse that she was becoming accustomed to.She could not decide on where to go, what direction she should follow next.She then raised her eyes to the sky and saw that it was lighter than before, much of the shadows having been purged.

The digital sunlight was soon to wash over the tainted land.

_It'll be okay_, she told herself, taking a slow step forward and feeling the sting in her legs but suppressing it through biting down on her tongue._Everything will be good again… soon.I'll find… T.K._

She took several more steps before she moved near the trees and used them as support, worried that she would fall and not be able to get up again.She moved away from the hill and continued along the leveled ground, in hope that perhaps somewhere around the new particular elevation, she would find the boy and save him from his fears, as she was pushing to do for herself.

But her strength was fading, and with every step she took it would take more and more.Unknowing of her own true condition, of the severity of her earlier fall, she would soon discover that it had done more damage to her head than she had realized, and would ultimately take her life before she would even know what was going on…

*****

"Make sure that's tight, I don't think we would want to see everything mess up before they come."

"Don't worry, I'm making it as tight as I can."Gatomon tugged on the vine until it was firmly wrapped against the trunk of the tree. She let it go and checked to see if it was secured.She nodded in response."Yep, it's all good.See, you don't have to get all worried about it."

"I'm supposed to worry, I don't want to deal with those Woodmon again," Biyomon replied."It's bad enough that they have us running, but they might have the others as well.I just want it to end."

"If this works it will."

Biyomon fluttered away and moved across the open expanse between the trees they had climbed high into.She moved over to Tentomon and Koromon, sitting at the other end, checking the vines that they had pulled across part of the expanse and around the trees.The bird lowered herself onto a branch next to them and viewed their progress.

"Almost done?"

"Yeah," the head replied."But those logs are really hard to move and get into place.What if—"

"I don't want to think about what would happen if this plan fails," the insect said, cutting him off."It's bad enough we're trying it, we don't want to think about the negative possibilities."

"Well, I'm sure it will go exactly as we planned.We put too much work into it already to—"

"_Lightning Paw!_"

The sudden call from the cat pulled their attention away for a brief second as they saw several more vines fly down like whips and collected by her, taken and spread down as she climbed toward the floor with several of them. Biyomon glanced back for a moment then turned back to the other two digimon."I don't think I would want to tell Gatomon her part has been a waste so far."

Koromon plopped forward and studied the plan they had set up.Tai had devised it, and although it was considered a last-minute attempt it still seemed likely to help them stop the Woodmon from continuing after them.The setup had been strenuous and long, and thanks to their previous moves against the enemy they had yet to advance.But time was growing short, and it was still unknown whether or not their next step was going to work.All they could do was construct without a guide and pray it went according to the simulations they had played in their minds.Thankfully, their experience in what they were doing helped, and all they had to worry about was whether or not the vines would do their jobs as expected.

"This has got to work.I don't want to see Tai behaving the way he is," Koromon said, expressing his thought to the other two.

"What, you mean pulling ideas out of thin air like if nothing?" the bird asked.

"Personally I think it's beneficial considering it's Tai and he doesn't usually keep it going for long," Tentomon said on his part.

"No," the in-training digimon replied, lowering his voice so as to not let the boy, who was not that far away working on his own, ignoring the fact that Izzy was by himself having difficulties of his own and Sora elsewhere among the branches by her own, helping Gatomon in tightening the vines and pulling them up."I mean the way he's been acting to the other kids.Have you ever seen him behave like that?It's unnatural."

"Yeah, the way he yelled at both Sora and Izzy earlier.He has never been so hot-headed before," Biyomon agreed."I don't think it's fair of him treating them so badly when they haven't done anything to hurt him."

"It's Kari, that's what has him worried," Tentomon pointed out."He's the leader and he feels it's his responsibility to care for her and T.K."

"But he never mentioned T.K. once," the pink flyer observed, "he's only focused on Kari and Kari alone.It's like if by losing her he's afraid of something happening."She moved her eyes to Koromon."Have you ever heard him say anything that would suggest that?"

The digimon lowered his eyes disappointedly and shook his head."No, not really.I don't think he did."

"Hmm, perhaps he's afraid of being grounded?" the insect asked, trying to toss in a few words of humor.

Koromon let himself fall into thought and reviewed his relationship with Tai.The boy was the only one he had called a friend.He was the first human he had met and after some fierce battles and proud victories, had grown to love being his digimon.Yet the boy also called those other human kids, whom he had come to know for the past countless weeks since they were first whisked away, friends as well.Now all of a sudden he had turned against Matt, who had left the group, and now both Sora and Izzy.The digimon wanted to conclude that perhaps the missing element contained within the Crest of Friendship and its possessor was the reason he had become this new, angry person.But it could not be just that.No, the little digimon feared that it was something natural the boy had chosen to embrace and follow.He also feared that this callous face he had put on would turn other friendships away—including the one between them both.

_I don't want Tai to hate me next_, Koromon thought to himself, depressed by the mere possibility that it would be the boy's next step._He might start yelling at me, too, and want me to get out of his way and leave him alone.He might think I'm not a good friend to him._

The digimon refused to accept it.He turned away from the other two whom he had been speaking to and watched Tai from afar.He could see him vigorously working on securing another part of a log against the branch he kneeled on.

"Come on, Gatomon, put some muscle into it!" he ordered, straining to pull the log up."Your end is gonna fall!"

"Hey, I'm no super-kitty over here!" the feline stated, having climbed back into the branches across from Tai and trying to pull the last log up, receiving assistance from Sora as well.

Once the log had reached the level they needed it at, Tai began to tie it against the branch with a durable vine several times over.The boy seemed tense, as if he was having trouble with the vine.He tugged at it and grew tenser when it would not work.

Deciding then and now to confront his behavior, Koromon began to nudge himself along the branches, using his ribbon-like ears to keep himself safely against them.He moved up next to Tai, his movement attracting the child's attention, but only for a second.

"Tai, are you okay?I'm worried that you are mad with all of us, and we don't know what to do," he told him frankly.

"It's nothing, Koromon," Tai answered, focusing more on the vine that had been longer than expected and was proving difficult to cut through.He had tried sawing it against the branch to make it weak and easier to rip, as he had done with the others he had come across, but this one was proving to be very hostile."People get mad every now and then.It's ordinary for someone to yell at another person when they are not handling certain things very well."

"But does that mean you are gonna start yelling at me?"

The question pulled Tai's attention away from his chore.He turned around carefully and faced the digimon."What makes you think I would yell at you, buddy?You know you're my friend.I would not want to make you think I hate you."

"Izzy's your friend, too," his partner pointed out observantly, "and you yelled at him.You yelled at him and Sora and they didn't deserve it.I just think it was not right.They've helped a lot, and we need everyone's help on this.Please don't be mad that I told you this.I just…" He trailed off, finding that he had lost his words and wondered how Tai would reply to him.

Tai, looking into Koromon's face and getting an idea as to how he felt, took the moment to reflect on what he had done.He turned away, staring off into nothingness, fully realizing that it was true.His actions were uncalled for, and what he had done was not right to either one of them.If his own digimon could see that before he could, what did that say about himself?It was not easy for him to focus on the feelings of others, particularly those whom he had nothing in common with.Still, it was not his place to throw tantrums at others, and from a leader's perspective it was not at all productive.

Koromon suddenly shot forward at the vine Tai had found trouble cutting through.He clamped his mouth over it and gnawed at it like a puppy, biting though it with his semi-sharp teeth.He finally cut through it with hardly any effort and moved back for him to see the work he had done, hoping it would express that he was still prepared to be a trusty ally.

The boy hummed to himself, coming to a conclusion and returning his gaze to the digimon."You're right, Koromon," he began, a little hesitantly but still with effort."I shouldn't have done all that."He then turned over to where Izzy was kneeling and decided that he had to make amends with the boy."Give me a sec."

Rising up to his feet, Tai stepped across the branch in the direction of Izzy.He did not look down, for he knew they were some ways up.Having climbed to approximately thirty feet, a safe twenty-five above what the Woodmon were able to reach, they would work without wanting to do so.They were near the top of the canopy, and so still had some protective cover to hide behind.Luckily, to their advantage the branches in the tree were unnaturally wide, enough to accommodate enough walking space without a severe risk of tipping over.For precaution, however, they used some extra vines to secure themselves to the branches and main trunks of the trees they were in.They were the only ones who had them tied around their waists, for the digimon would be the main factor of Tai's plan once it was set into motion and could not be held back.

Tai moved over behind Izzy and kneeled."Hey, Izzy, are you free for a moment?"

Izzy paused and turned around, facing the other with a stoic look, purposely waiting to judge what he would do.

Tai found it even more difficult speaking to him than he had found to Koromon.He cleared his throat."Look, I'm sorry I was a jerk and, well, yelling at ya.I didn't want to go there, I'm just upset about what's going on.Are you still mad?"

For a moment nothing but air passed between the two without carrying a word.Then Izzy was the first to give a satisfactory reply."Not exactly the in-depth apology I would have expected for someone insulting my character, but easy to forgive.Just don't do it again and I won't say anything about your egregious demeanor."

Not sure about what he had just said, Tai decided to accept his comment as a good one."Uh—okay, whatever that means."

Izzy smacked on the pleased smile and was glad to know the coldness between the two had been settled and thawed out."Well, then, glad to know you're back.But don't you think you might also want to talk to Sora—"

"Move it, everyone!"Gatomon's sudden call interrupted him, directing both of them away from the point Izzy was just about to bring up.

"What is it?" Tai asked, rising to his feet.

"The Woodmon are coming!"

"Already?!" Izzy cried, moving around Tai and over to the trunk of the tree their branch led to, closer to Gatomon's view."But we haven't even gotten a chance to test it!"

"So, my nails are sore from cutting down all these things and you don't see me complaining right now!" the feline countered."We can't test it, we have to go for it now!"

Sora moved along the branch she had stepped across and over to the digimon, listening to the ground far below them.She and the others could hear the same rumbling sounds that they had encountered earlier headed in their direction.It was evident that their enemies were not very pleased with the blow the children had dealt them.Loud muttering and angry whispers could be heard within their stampeding.

"Okay, we've got to do this now," Tai commanded, fully into his original role once again.He glanced at the digimon and waved his hand in directions."Koromon and Gatomon will stand at their posts and let them go once they've been lured right under the trap.Biyomon will stay as our air patrol.Remember: do not cut the vines until she absolutely says so.We have to move fast and do this as best as we can."

"Tai, you owe me a manicure when this is over!" Gatomon called out to him as she leaped away from where she was standing and maneuvered to where she would separate the vines from the trees.

"I'm still worried about this plan," Tentomon said to himself, flying close to the boys."Couldn't we have made some blueprints to have worked off?We could have taken the time to set this up better, maybe let me make a little treehouse for myself to hide in until it's over, hmm?"

"Now we just need to draw them to the trap," Izzy said."Tentomon, I need you to go down and get them to stop right under it.Once you draw their attention get out of there and leave the rest to us."

Tentomon was not delighted to hear those words."Now I'm bait for some forest rejects?"He buzzed up into the air and descended toward the ground."I have got to get a lawyer to protect me from all of this abuse!"He disappeared from their view beyond the branches and headed off into the danger ahead.

"We have to get in position, too," Tai told the others, moving aside to get near where one of the key vines were set.He let his fingers slide into his pockets and grasp his mini-telescope.He raised it to his eye and stared down toward the edge of the clearing to see the insectoid move beyond it nervously.

Izzy and Sora moved to their own respective designations, using the branches to guide them across from one tree to another.The smaller boy could still see that Sora had yet to be apologized to.Her awkward silence throughout much of their preparation still suggested that what Tai had done to her earlier was still affecting her mind.He could only hope that Tai would say something to the girl and bring her out of the mood before it affected her more deeply.

"Tentomon's found them," Biyomon reported, using her bird's vision to see far ahead of the others.

"Are you sure?" Tai asked, unable to tell from his own point of view.

To answer his question, there was a scream of cowardice and the quick shouts of both their representative and their enemies growing loud all of a sudden.

"Okay, here he comes!" Tai exclaimed, eyeing the digimon come into the telescope's line of sight.

"Everyone ready!" Izzy called to them, receiving several nods to confirm that there was no going back.

Under the diminishing moonlight Tentomon could be seen fluttering fast through the small clearing beneath them.Very close in his wake the wicked digimon followed, trying to reach out and pluck him out of the air.A rough count of the group was about thirty, maybe a little more.The number was important now if they were to succeed.

"Yaow!Hey, guys, can't we be reasonable—eek!" the friendly bug gasped as he tried to outmaneuver them.

A second later he was under the specific point and buzzed up high, far too high and fast to see or stop him but just enough to make them stop where needed.

"Hey, come back here!" one of them snapped in a garble twist of incomprehensible speech.

The bird gave the nod and turned toward Tai."Now!"

The boy, still observing through the telescope, lowered the device from his face and revealed the hardened, determined look of a general."Hey, you Woodmon down there!"

The army caught the boy's words and glanced up even higher, only discovering the full view of what the Digidestined and their partners had constructed.

"TIMBER!"

With that cry Tai kicked at the vine secured to the tree he stood in, knocking it out of place and sending a domino effect of elevated logs back down again.

"_Bubble Blow!_"

"_Lightning Paw!_"

"_Spiral Twister!_"

Izzy and Sora also kicked and snapped the secured vines they were told to send off.A tumbling set of logs joined the rest and swept down like thick cinderblocks about to pelter a line of cars—and one flying digimon who had yet to get out of the way.

"Whoa, hey!" he screamed as he shot from side to side, luckily avoiding the logs but shrieking at the peak of his voice.

The first set of logs slammed right into the ground, onto the edge of the army's position, crashing into them so fast and hard they had very little chance of protest.The force was so hard it turned them into instant digital dust and they vanished.

Just as the others realized that they had been set up and began to make a run for it, Tai leaped over and kicked at another vine, causing it to snap. "I don't think so!"

Several more Woodmon found themselves lost as a set of three logs were sent into a swinging descent and drove themselves right into the forward flanks.While some were able to dodge them in seconds, those who were hit were sent flying and vaporized in the air.

"_Lightning Paw!_"With one swipe the cat sent more tumbling down.

"_Bubble Blow!_"The little digimon's attack was just enough to snap the bark off the tree and cause the vines' knot to unravel.

"Wait a second!You guys are gonna take _me_ down!" Tentomon screamed cowardly, still not clear from the falling path of death."_Super Shocker!_"A disburse of energy was enough to cause one log descending in his direction to snap in two and pass by him without causing harm.That could not be said for the two Woodmon below who were idiotic enough to stand there and stare upward in shock when the broken parts dove right into them and exploded them into dust.

Tai jumped across the branches and kicked at more vines waiting to be released."Yeah, take that!It's working!"

Izzy moved from one branch to another while observing the grounds below them.He eyed a small bunch attempting an escape, having avoided the other logs and near the point where they could not be hit.

"You guys, they're escaping!" he shouted out, pointing down toward the renegade group.

Gatomon caught their movement and realized she could not let that happen.She leaped away from her perch and dove across the trees, leaping form one to the other just in time to get within their view."Not so fast!" she cried, digging her nails into the bark and staring directly at them, her eyes flashing a light-red luminescence."_Cat's Eye Hypnotism!_"

In sudden unison six Woodmon froze where they stood, unable to move a millimeter, a bizarre freaked-out look locked on all of their faces.They were trapped.

Tai took the opportunity to kick one log away and let it fly.The vines brought it into another swing, this time sweeping right into the group and taking them down into a well-deserved flight right into the other trees, causing them to rattle.

Koromon, attempting to send another log down, felt the jarring from his perch and could not secure himself.He slipped from his branch and began a plummet toward the debris below, screaming.

Within mere milliseconds the airborne bird digimon swept through the air and used her small but effective talons to grab the little creature's ears and stop his fall in time.He did not know what had happened at first, but then he realized she had saved his life.

"Thanks, Biyomon!"

"No problem!" she told him, carrying him away from the area.

Sora stepped over to release another suspended log and stomped against the vine.For some reason she discovered it had been secured too well.She moved closer to it, tugging on her own safety line for more space and tried again to dislodge it.Suddenly the log snapped away, but caught hold of Sora's drooping line and tugged her along with it.She fell and grabbed the bark just as the vine against her waist snapped away from the tree and sent her loose.

The girl's screams swung with her as the log, not fully released, slammed into a few more Woodmon during its pendulum imitation, knocking them out cold.The bark she held on rattled and broke off as the log crashed into the trees Tai and Izzy were standing in.The shockwave sent her flying upward, shrieking, with her safety vine cracking around like a long whip.

"Sora!" Biyomon screamed, unable to fly to her assistance.

The log broke and tilted over toward the wreckage below, finishing those last few digimon who could not escape the area.Sora spun into a wild somersault, her arms flailing, hoping to grab onto something before she fell.Unknowing to her at first, a gloved hand quickly reacted to her vine's close position and caught it.A harsh tug was driven against Sora's weight as she was stopped and hung in the air, ten feet above the ground.She swayed over to a nearby tree and grabbed onto its trunk, locking herself onto it.She looked up to see who had seized the line—and saw it to be the brown-haired boy, his body straining as it tried to stay on the branch while he held onto her with both hands.

Sora was relieved and surprised at the act.She found it hard to react to it."Uh… thanks, Tai!" she called up.

"You've been gaining weight?!" the boy stated as he struggled to hold on, not exactly delivering the thoughtful impression of a hero.

"The Woodmon seemed to have been completely obliterated!" Izzy reported joyously.

"Are you sure?" Tai asked, lowering the vine as much as he could in a preparation to let her go at a safe height.

"I think so.Any that have fled could not possibly think of coming back again.I believe we took care of all of those who had followed us!"

"That's great, but can we discuss why all of a sudden you tried to take _me_ out?!" Tentomon demanded hysterically as he watched the small boy begin a safe climb down.

Sora glanced over to Gatomon just as Tai let her drop down safely to the ground."That was something different, Gatomon.I never knew you had that type of attack."

"A good kitty never lets her secrets out of the bag," the feline replied casually, as if she was being greatly honored at a cat show, "although some tend to get out on their own.Besides, what would you silly humans do without me?"She leaped down to the ground in one shot, giving her signature "mph" as she touched the dirt.

It took a few more moments before all of the children and digimon returned safely to the earth.Tai surveyed the ravaged area, seeing the shattered remnants of what had been logs buried into the ground in a terrible heap.He was actually impressed by the results.He had not thought that it would work so efficiently.At first he was not sure whether or not it could take out the majority of the enemy.But with the results right before him, he had obviously not trusted his luck as much as he had thought.

"We sure showed them," the eldest boy stated to himself, proud of their victory.

"Yeah, it's just a good thing someone was kind enough to leave all these cut trees here to work with," Koromon stated, popping over to his companion's side and viewing the debris as well.

"One wonders who would have left us such a sufficient means of stopping them," Izzy said to himself.

"Well, whoever it was was nice enough to do it," Tai said, not giving it a second thought."We won't have to try that again."

"That's a relief, because I most certainly do not want to be a part of your target practice again!" Tentomon complained, although his continuous ramblings were ignored.

Tai looked down at Koromon, who was already staring up at him.He was glad that it was over with, and that despite the earlier mishappenings he had found his way back to the leader form he had solely established. He let a smile cross his lips. Koromon saw that it was directed toward him and knew that he could still place his trust in the one he had been proud to call the one with courage.

The boy moved his eyes away and directed his attention back to the matter that had yet to be resolved."Let's go find T.K. and my sister."

*****

Thoughts of finding the young boy grew to a point of desperation as it seemed to be an endless cycle of time with no positive signs turning up.She had absolutely no way of telling where she was or where she was headed.The entire forest was a constant torture, teasing her by looking the same everywhere she went and confusing her only further, pushing her to the absolute brink of tolerance against pain.

_Come on, Kari_, she told herself._You're stronger than you think.Just… keep going._

Swaying uncontrollably, the girl had to rely on whatever she could grab on for support, whether it be a low branch or large tree.Her legs had slowed the bleeding, but the damaged nerves responded against her venture and threatened to give out.She hoped that they would not, and placed her concentration on the land before her.Her vision blurred several times, and she started to develop a slight cough, although no sound could be heard from it.She tried as best she could to ignore the handicaps and forced herself onward.

_I'm getting too tired_, she thought._I have to… rest soon._

She shook her head, deciding against it.Her determination was not going to fail.She had to do everything in her power to go as if nothing happened, knowing that if any rest was to be had it would come after securing protection for the young boy.

Sweat mingled with blood against her forehead.She had begun to overheat from the strenuous activity, having pushed herself far beyond what would be considered safe for a girl of her age and condition.She reached up and wiped the sweat away, feeling the gash sting when her fingers caressed it.Her face twitched in a negative response.

Eyelids growing heavy, Kari ordered herself to stay focused and alert, no matter how much she wanted to stop and rest.For a second she closed her eyes and thought she would fall.

No, she did not close her eyes.They were still open.It was her vision.It had blacked out on its own.

A moment later she was able to see the dim settings again, but she realized something that disturbed her greatly.She had hoped she would be able to walk off her injuries.At least that was what Tai often called it when he got himself hurt playing soccer.But this was something serious, something she would not be able to walk off.

She would not be able to survive in time to see the sunrise.

_Don't believe that_, Kari ordered herself, still intent on finding T.K._You can still move.It's not time yet.Think about what the others would want._

Kari observed how far she had gotten.She found that she was about to enter a clearing, one somewhat familiar to her.Her eyes strained to see further ahead.She could not see far, but she studied the sky and saw it a lighter shade than before, the beautiful mixes of blue and gold becoming more predominant over the murky blackness, but still under the shade of gray in-between.

She lowered her eyes, feeling the weakness overcome her.She could not hold it back and felt a lapse in concentration.Her body lost its balance and she greeted the ground, her front landing against the dirt.The impact stunned her hard, making her bones ache and her injuries ache even more.She tried to bear it, suppressing it as best she could, but she was no match for it.She was losing the battle to the darkness, feeling her consciousness slip so slowly now, trying to break her last bit of life before she was stripped of it forever.It would take her, as her thoughts started to fade into the distant recesses of her brain and she lost all power of existence.

_No… no, please, I can't… can't stop… now._

She struggled to breathe, feeling her lungs slow and her heart straining to keep itself active.Her eyes fluttered as she was able to move her head up just enough to see that she had fallen into the outer edges of the small clearing.She could barely make out the trees only two-dozen or more feet away.Thin lines dangled from the branches of one nearby tree, appearing silver against the light.Far below, only a foot from the base of the tree, was a small figure, lying on the ground face down.Next to him was what appeared to be a smaller orange shape, encased in a red casing of some kind.

The girl, not able to rise any further, not able to call up enough energy to stand again, continued to look before her.Yes, she knew it had to be them, knew it had to be and nobody else.She refused to believe that it was anyone else, and knew that she was not hallucinating and studying an illusion.The images were real.She sensed that to be true as the first pure glow of hope she had experienced since her night travels had begun filled her weary eyes.

_It's T.K… I found T.K. and Patamon…_

The determination in Kari grew stronger, despite her failing mobility.She slowly moved her arms out, unable to lift herself across the ground and crawl on her knees.She could not move her legs at all anymore.They denied her the ability to use them.Reaching out, she grabbed the ground and began to drag herself across the ground with every little ounce of strength she could call up, routing it only to that purpose.The dirt scraped and cut at her legs further, making her mind explode with terrible anguish.She gripped down on them and continued, feeling the ground rub across her clothes and face with pity over the Digidestined girl, wearing her thin like an old dish rag ready to be tossed aside to the trash.

_T… T.K. I'm here.I'm… coming_.

It felt like an eternity to her, felt like she had stepped into the deepest perpetual nightmare of her short concluding life, but she managed to drag her body across the clearing fifteen feet before reaching him.Her body wanted to die already, her breath strained and her heart slowed.She would not let herself do that, though.She knew she was strong, not enough to fight death but just enough to be there with T.K. for her last glimpse of life.

Kari stopped next to his quiet body, reaching out to his arm and taking it.Very easily she was able to move him over onto his back, with the burden called his backpack still strapped against him.She would have removed it but suspected that if she tried she would faint from pushing herself more.It surprised her, though, that he was so easy to move.But the knowledge of having reached him at last filled her with joy and she did not take notice of it.She positioned herself closer, seeing his face resting so innocently from where she had come to him.She could not see well enough to check on Patamon.Her diminishing sight was just strong enough to let her see T.K.She was just grateful that the time she had left would allow her to see him.

Touching his chest and trying to awaken him, the girl realized something disturbingly different about the boy.His breathing had slowed down so much it was impossible for her to tell whether or not he was inhaling air or not.His face was drained of all color and life.His body responded limply to her actions.His head hung loosely to its side… with blood trailing down the corner of his mouth and running down the side of his neck.

_No… T.K., no…_

Disbelief engulfed the girl as she grew worried.She tried moving him a little more before her arm grew so heavy to her she had to relax it.She stared down at the boy's face, studying his every feature, his every curve, his every example of innocence.The green hat he wore to hide his flat locks.The small sect of bangs that formed a puff over his forehead.The cute blond eyebrows that worked so well with his eyes whenever he smiled or laughed at a joke.This was the boy who had given her a reason to fight against the darkness the entire night.She had strived to finding and rescuing them, and make sure he would survive to see the real world again.But now…

_T.K… no, please, don't be gone._

She lowered her head close to him, reaching out to touch his neck.She felt the warm blood cooling inside his skin.She sensed the pulse fading into an insignificant nothing.Yes, he was still alive.His heartbeat, however, indicated strongly that he was slipping away, just as she was.But judging from the way he looked and that he had suffered from a serious fall, he had his fate sealed long before and was far beyond her point.He could not be revived in time, and she could not do anything about it.

She was going to die with him and he was not going to be there to tell her not to be afraid about it.

She grew more light-headed, unable to keep her thoughts together.She felt groggy and exhausted of it all.She was ready to pass out at any second.

_I'm so sorry, T.K.,_ she thought, touching his forehead and letting her fingers brush his exposed golden hair, feeling an immeasurable wave of grief washing over her as she did._I'm… so, so sorry.I tried… my promise… I did not want this to happen to you.I…_

Her honey-colored eyes glistened with tears.She found it much more harder to breathe now.She had never known this was possible.She had forced herself to believe it would never happen to her.But she was naïve and pathetic.She could not handle the responsibility, the challenge, of being alone.Her weakness had overpowered her.Because of that she had let Tai and everyone else down.__

_I wanted… I wanted to save you.I didn't want you to… go through it alone.I'm not going to let you go through this alone.I'm here… I'm here, T.K._

The youth felt the swell of emotions ready to drown her, climbing up to a call of pure sobbing, but she could feel herself losing consciousness again.Even if she began to cry, it was not going to be for long.The internal injuries to her head would not allow it.The developing clots of blood would see to that.****

_"I don't know… if I can handle myself being alone without him…"_

_T.K… I understand now.I know… I know what you were afraid of.I understand you now, T.K._

Her sparkling tears slid down her precious face and forced her to blink.She moved her eyes away and down over his body, seeing it rest so comfortably like if there was nothing in the world it would ever have to fear again.Then she noticed something in his left hand.His fingers were wrapped around it.A metallic item, resting to his side.She recognized it to be her whistle.

_I… must've dropped it.I… didn't even know.He found it for me.If… if only Tai heard it… he would know I…_

Suddenly a thought crossed into her mind.She could not remember it exactly, the last time Tai had used her whistle, but she knew it was long ago and that it had helped him.And with her forgotten voice… yes, she knew she could signal for help for T.K.

Kari slowly raised her arm and reached over T.K.'s body, lifting the whistle out from his hand and to her mouth.She struggled for a breath and blew, making the high-pitched noise scream from the item.The noise cut itself short.She tried again to draw in a longer breath, blowing as much as she could.The whistle let out one final and extensive one escape into the air.The trees carried it through the clearing, across the expanse of the forest, taking with it the last shred of hope the girl held in her heart.

Her lungs could give her no more air to use and she stopped, lowering the whistle from her mouth and feeling the darkness take her now.The light in the sky grew dim for her eyes and she started to drift downward, falling back into a void purged of pain, emotion, all that life gave privilege to.Her body rested aside T.K.'s as her head lowered itself against his small chest.She could feel nothing else more appropriate than to be with him before letting herself down to sleep, and believe that he who had carried her hope for survival throughout the night would still be there in whatever followed.

With that her eyelids lowered themselves and all became dark as nothing but silence now dominated the forest, bringing to the girl the rest her body had craved for so long, slowly letting her slip into a state of eternal, welcoming nothingness.

All stood still, nothing moving, nothing speaking against the defeat of the two children.Time had frozen around their weak bodies as a faint glow began to form in the air several feet above them.The glow grew brighter, its center of light expanding with sprinkles of stardust drifting across the air.The radiance drove all shadows away as its power stretched throughout the clearing and shrouded the innocents under its protection.

In response to its presence, another light began to brighten.It did not have the strength to reflect a glow as powerful as the one before them.It blew a faint pink gleam against the greater's white.A low whistle accompanied the silence as the young girl's Crest of Light, resting within the exposed pendant against her slowing body, communicated to the entity that had returned to her.

The two glows suddenly grew brighter as the benevolent essence showered down over them.Miniscule specks of light dropped like dust, falling upon their failing bodies.The two and the digimon could not respond.They could not sense it.Yet they were all familiar to its activity before, for the same light that had taken temporary residence in Kari's body and revealed the truth of the Digidestined's past was responsible for having led the youngest girl through the forest.Chances were that it had teased Kari purposely by letting her fall and receive the injuries that would bring her end.Or perhaps it had honestly been leading her to T.K. the entire time.Its motives could not be certified.

The light sensed the two and comprehended their situations.A wave of beaming energy descended within the shower of particles.It touched and faded against their impressions, slowly making the girl's crest grow even brighter, taking them all into a mist of pure light that could not be subdued by even death itself.

The stardust dropped over Patamon, still trapped within the shell that had been placed over his little body by the malicious Dark Master.Upon its touch the shell began to deteriorate and crack down the middle, setting the digimon loose of the prison.It shattered completely and vaporized into digital molecules, leaving no indent of earlier abuse as any and all bruises faded away.

The effects on the two, however, were much more miraculous.The light bathed them, sending streamers of energy around their injured limbs.The dirt and blood that had stained their clothes washed away in the blink of an eye, as if they had never touched the children at all during their ordeals.The severe cuts across Kari's skin also started to lift.The arms and legs were repaired as a stream washed over them.Her clothes, torn, sewed themselves together into their original design, fading from ragged to soft like a vision through time.

T.K.'s mouth, leaking blood, suddenly stopped and let the substance become whisked away from sight.His face began to fill with lively color and take back the warmth of his body, mingling with that of the girl's.The hemorrhaging in her brain halted and receded.Internal bleeding stopped and reversed itself, bringing her back to her natural condition, and leaving her as she had originally been: a young one free of harm.The ground around her was purified, as she was, the traces of blood that had been tracked disappearing without existing records.

The two rested there together, silent in their own dreamlike states, as the entity brought their last grips of life back from the darkness and repaired all the horrendous damage that had been done on their bodies and minds… and souls.The glow that it had let loose then began to recede back into itself and take the power it dropped over them, but leaving them with the renewed strength that they were stripped of by the night's course.With that the dust it had sprinkled blew into obscurity and the presence shrunk with it.

The light departed just as well as it had appeared.The shadows, while weaker now than before, found themselves again as the last sparkle of it dimmed and slipped back into whatever plane it had originated from.Its power now gone, the Crest of Light also dimmed and fell back into a state of dormancy.The faint whistle that it had shared with the entity could no longer be heard, and silence once again filled the forest.With it came the birth of new light that peaked over the treetops, as the sunrise had come and brought an end to the long night.

The children continued to lay still, basking in one another's body heat, their bodies nestled together so quietly and with such perfect tenderness it would be difficult to break a bond founded in such deep affection as the kind displayed through their young impressions.The forest left them undisturbed until the call of a boy broke the immortal silence from a distance.

"Kari!"

The hail was low in resonance but effective enough to travel to the girl's ears, although there was no replying to it.A few seconds later a repeat of the boy's shout was sent through the air as its source grew closer to the area she was located in.

"Tai, we'll find her, okay?Do you really think we should just wander like this with no major leads to go on?"

"She'll hear me, Izzy.Trust me, we'll find them.T.K!Kari!"

The mentioning of her name brought her ears to slip into consciousness.A twitch ran around her right eye as she moaned weakly in response, her throat lifted of the dark magic completely.She reclined her head back slowly but continued to sleep, believing the voice to be coming from some forgotten corner of her dreams.

"I think she's close by.I can feel it."Gatomon.

"What makes you say that?"Sora.

"I know it.I can sense her nearby, I just know it."

"Well, then she should be able to hear me," their leader told them."Kari!"

"…T—Tai," she replied, her voice having been strained from the absence of use and somewhat difficult to utilize again.She continued to sleep.She could hear his voice.She let her head shift slightly, moving against T.K. in an instinctual attempt to receive it better."T—Tai… brother…"

"We're getting closer.I thought I just heard her voice," the feline insisted.

A few seconds later, the outer limits of the clearing were disturbed by a small exhausted party consisting of three children and four digimon.They did not take many more steps as the one with large brown hair froze in mid-step and caught the figures lying against the ground at the other end of his view, right across from them.

"Kari!" he cried joyously and with much excitement as he raced across the clearing with unbelievable speed."Kari!"

The boy was followed with the same enthusiasm by the cat digimon first, then by the two remaining children and their companions.They chased after them, their chests filling with great relief that the search had ended successfully.

Kari stirred a little more before her brother had reached her.He ran so quickly he nearly slipped and rolled the rest of the way to her position.He let himself fall to his knees right beside her, trying to catch his breath as he was overwhelmed by the greatest amount of happiness his heart had ever experienced.

Tai touched her arm and stirred her, hoping that she was still alive."Kari.Kari, wake up."

The younger sister stirred naturally from the movement.A small moan escaped her throat in protest of waking up.She turned her head slowly to the side and let her eyes flutter as they opened.Her eyesight was strongly blurred, and it took a few seconds before they adjusted.When they did she found Tai staring at her against a wonderful brightening sky backdrop.

She was confused by his sudden arrival, as it had seemed to her that a few seconds had passed since she had gone to sleep."Oh, did you just get here?"

Tai could not hold back his emotions and wrapped his arms around her body in a generous hug."I'm so glad you're safe.I thought I would never see you again.Please don't scare me again, okay?" he asked through shut eyes on the verge of spilling tears, his face hidden from those who stopped right behind him.

"Don't worry, I won't go off unless you want me to, Tai," she stated.

He shook his head and leaned back to see her face."You don't do that, either.If I say something like that just ignore me."

Kari was released from the boy's hug only to be greeted by another one, this one from her digimon companion who jumped forward to her.The small creature could not wrap her arms completely around the girl but still attempted to.

"I thought I'd lose you again, Kari.I would've given up all nine lives to make sure you were okay," Gatomon assured her.

Kari giggled at the thought."Now you don't go doing that, Gatomon.You need them."

The cat, after confirming to herself that her human partner was okay, stepped back to give her personal space.Tai stared at her, still resting on his knees."What happened, Kari?Were you hurt?Were you afraid?"

Kari reflected on the questions, particularly on the latter.She thought about her answer and smiled at him."I was afraid, but I'm not anymore.I know I won't ever be alone again."

She remembered, upon feeling his body still next to her, about T.K. and directed her attention to him now.The boy was asleep, resting just as she was only a little while before.But as she stared at him he began to stir.He turned his head in her direction, feeling her presence from it somehow.His eyes slowly opened and caught the girl's smiling, gentle face as the first image he woke up to.

"Hi," she told him softly.

T.K. did not respond so quickly to her greeting.He felt awfully awkward for some reason he could not explain.He glanced around at his surroundings and tried to piece together what had happened to him."Did we sleep here the entire night?" he asked, trying to remember if she had arrived to him some time after he had fallen from Puppetmon's suspending threads.

"Just a little," the girl told him.

The two stared at one another, exchanging looks of sweetness, sensing that somehow, some time during that long night, they had formed some kind of internal link based deep in the sub-layers of their thoughts that they would continue to develop throughout the oncoming journey.

Tai suddenly realized the item he had found earlier in the search and reached into his pocket.He pulled out the pink scarf and held it out for her to accept."Oh, here, I found this and held it for you.Don't worry, it didn't get dirty."

Kari turned from T.K. and stared at the scarf, surprised that she had forgotten all about it.She reached out and took it from his hand."Thank you," she said as she lifted it up and began to wrap it around the base of her neck, tying it from the back.

Lifting her eyes to the sky, the girl discovered the flow of newborn light spilling over the tops of the trees and splashing the ground and them with morning warmth.She finished tying the scarf and lowered her arms, watching the digital equivalent of the sun rising against the glorious sky and instilling in her a new look on her own fears.She knew that although she had nearly lost to the darkness, her inner light continued to shine, and that somehow the entire experience she had undergone was worth it.In the end, she would gain much more.If she tried, she would be given all that she and the others would need…

She was sure of at least that much.

_Author's Note: Wow, if you've read that entire fic I have to say thank you.I've enjoyed reading the response it has received throughout the lengthy posting occurrences.Don't worry, if you think I won't be writing for a while because of my computer, think again.I'm already working on the next fic, kinda a companion to what happened here with a separate focus…let's just say a Sora and *cough* type of thing.Yes, you'll have to start reading the next one to figure out what I just said.And don't worry, if you think it'll be a typical type of fic, you'll be in for another treat, depending on how you see it._

_Oh, gotta go.Kinkos is trying to force me off the computer…just kidding._


End file.
